Lady Hurricanes Softball Starts New Season 5-0
The Monticello Lady Hurricane softball program has hit, ran, and fielded their way to the first 5-0 start since 2017, taking three games last weekend in a tournament at Upson-Lee in Thomaston.
On Friday, the Lady Canes took on the Taylor County Lady Vikings, a team that finished the 2023 season 17-7, and looked promising as the first test that the ladies saw this season. A pitcher’s duel developed between senior Emily Whitwell and the Vikings junior Victoria Cooper.
Over the course of the first three innings, both teams were held scoreless, both pitchers firing strike after strike. Whitwell showed her toughness, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the second and striking out two in the third after the first two batters reached.
In the fourth, Taylor was able to break the scoring ice. The first two batters again reached, and after a passed ball advanced them to second and third, the batter Driggers struck a line drive single to left. Whitwell bowed her neck again, setting down the next three batters, two by way of strikeout, to end the inning and allowing only one run.
This momentum seemed to work in the Lady Canes favor in the bottom of the inning. After a pop-out to start, Whitwell came up and stroked a line drive to right center for a stand up triple, and after a Kelsey Vining walk, Haven Cannon came up and delivered, lacing a single through the hole in the right side of the infield and driving in Whitwell.
After another pop-out put two outs on the board, more Hurricane magic started working. Sophomore Gracie Roper laid a bunt down the first base line to load the bases, and another sophomore catcher Kaylee Gentes was hit by pitch to drive in what would be the go-ahead run. This brought up senior first baseman Madelyn Taylor, who lifted the first pitch she saw into right field for a bases clearing double and a 5-1 Monticello lead.
In the top of the fifith, Whitwell again worked around traffic on the bases, but came through with a strikeout and a lineout to close out the inning. She finished the day with nine strikeouts in her five innings pitched, only allowing four hits, four walks, and the one unearned run.
Kylee Schell came on to pitch in the sixth, putting the side down after the leadoff batter reached on an error. In the seventh, the Canes tried to make it close, allowing three runs to cross the plate and tighten the score on two doubles and a single, but Schell was able to induce a pop-out to Cannon to end the game and pick up the save.
On Saturday the ladies traveled back to Thomaston for games against host Upson-Lee and Crawford County. Schell took to the circle against Upson-Lee and had one of the most efficient games of her career, going four innings in a complete game effort shortened by mercy rule.
It took Schell only 36 pitches in the outing to shut down Upson-Lee, only allowing two hits in the process. Though she did not strike out any batters she also did not walk anyone, and the Lady Canes played relatively clean softball, only allowing one other batter to reach by way of error.
On the hitting side, it was a different story, as they were able to connect for 13 hits, pushing across 13 runs, taking advantage of three walks, two errors, and a hit batter to put the game out of reach quickly in the mid-morning August heat. The ball was flying all over the park, with the big hits coming from Hailey Roper, who led off the game with a double down the line and finished with a 2/3 effort at the plate. She filled up the stat sheet, scoring two runs and stealing five bases in the rout.
Another big hit came from Whitwell, who had a deep line drive inside the park home run as one of her three hits in a perfect 3/3 day at the plate. She drove in two runs on that effort, and scored three in the game total. She also added three more stolen bases, as the squad totaled an astounding 15 stolen bases in the game.
The last big bopper from the game was Cannon, who drove in two runs for the game, one in the first inning driving in Roper on a towering sac fly, and the other on a double that hit off the top of the fence and was just shy of being out. Vining and Schell also contributed two hits in the game, and Taylor and freshman Jazmin Maddox had one apiece.
In the third and final game of the weekend, the ladies matched up with Crawford County, another solid team with good pitching. Roper again led off the game, this time reaching on a line drive single that she checked into left field after working a seven pitch at-bat.
She moved up on a misplayed throw, and was bunted over by Kam Davis to put her at third with one out. Before the first pitch to Whitwell, an alert Roper stole home as the Crawford defense seemed to fall asleep. This gave the Canes a 1-0 lead before a lineout and strikeout ended the inning.
The Lady Eagles pushed across two runs in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of two Cane errors, but that was all she wrote for the rest of the game. Whitwell again came through in the circle, going the full seven innings and allowing only three hits while striking out 12 Crawford batters.