Lady ‘Canes Lose In Extra Innings

The Lady ‘Canes took non-region foe Taylor County into an extra inning and lost 3-2 in a real nail-biter Monday.

Freshman Taylor Garrett was dominating on the mound scattering six hits over eight innings and had three strike outs.

Defensively the team was outstanding. They turned two double plays, the second one of which shortstop Sharika Pennamon made a diving catch on a vicious line drive and recovered to double off the runner at second.

Taylor County took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and extended it to 2-0 in the second. After a scoreless third inning, the Lady ‘Canes picked up two runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game 2-2.
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Neither team could get another run across during the fifth, sixth and seventh inning, so regulation play ended in a tie.
During a tie breaker each team gets to begin its inning with a runner on second.

Defensively the Lady Canes got two outs on ground balls while the runner advanced to third.

Then Taylor County hit a double which scored the run before grounding out for the third out.

The Lady ‘Canes came to bat in the bottom of the eighth and loaded the bases with no outs and looked as if they were in position to score two runs and win the game. It was then that Taylor County got a force out at home on a bunt, then a strike out, and put the Lady ‘Canes away when a runner was trapped between first and second and tagged out.

Athletic Director and Head Softball Coach Chris Jenkins said, “Today’s game was how softball is supposed to be played, with two teams who played great offensively and defensively.
Sharika Pennamon made some amazing plays in the field, Taylor Garrett pitched a great game, their pitcher was dominating and it was one of those games it’s fun to be a part of. It was tough for either of us to lose it, and you hate to lose the way we did, but we battled and we can hold our heads up for that.”

Prior to this game the team participated in the Lady Redskin Tournament in Conyers last Friday and Saturday during which they defeated Commerce and Cedar Shoals before being defeated by Rockdale 11-7.

“Coach Jenkins said, “We played a lot better and we played some good competition. In the Rockdale game we played well but just had one bad inning where we made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage of it, and that was the difference in the game.”
Before that game the team played Pike County last Thursday and lost 9-1.

Coach Jenkins said, “It was one of our typical games where we played solid for four or five innings then we had that one inning where we made mistakes that came back to bite us again.

“We have three regular season games left to play and they are all region games. Currently we are 10-10 overall and tied for third place in the region. After our final three games we’ll go to the regional tournament, and our seed will determine who we play in the first round.”

The team was scheduled to play Crawford in Roberta Tuesday, then Greene at home today, Sept. 16, and Morgan at home next Tuesday, Sept. 21. All games begin at 5 p.m.