Lady Mavericks tally four wins in Alabama
A spring break trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, brought some positive results for the Anderson County High School softball team.
The Lady Mavericks won four of six games in tournament play last week.
“Overall, I’m really proud of the girls,” said first-year Coach Lindsey Verner. “We were really focused most of the time. I don’t want to say all the time, because we had one game where we weren’t.”
The Lady Mavericks (4-3) opened the tournament with an 8-5 victory over Beech, a top team from Hendersonville.
ACHS jumped out to a fast start, scoring all eight runs in the first two innings.
The Lady Mavericks answered an early wake-up call for the game, and Verner liked how her team responded, scoring two runs in the top of the first, and adding six more in the second to take an 8-0 lead.
“That was an early game, and we came ready to play,” Verner said. “We scored a lot of runs early and put them on their toes.”
Alli McKamey went 2-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. Leadoff hitter and senior centerfielder Kaycee Baldwin was 1-for-2 and scored twice. Marlea Finstad singled and drove in two runs.
Freshman pitcher Cindle Justice threw 3-2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and four walks. She struck out three. Reliever Addison Grooms recorded the final out.
In the second game, Anderson County defeated Ezell-Harding, a top Division II team, 7-4.
McKamey and Finstad each had two hits and combined to steal five bases. Baldwin added two hits, including a double, while stealing a base, driving in two runs, and scoring once.
On March 12, the Lady Mavericks used a five-run second inning to edge Huntsville 7-6.
Baldwin had three hits and scored a run. Finstad collected two hits, including a double, driving in three runs, scoring another, and stealing a base.
The team’s first misstep came in an 8-1 loss to Arab.
“We weren’t focused in that game,” Verner said. “In the other games, when we were on the field, we played.”
Later that day, ACHS faced Ezell-Harding again and won 6-0 behind a dominant performance from Justice, who tossed a one-hit shutout. ACHS scored six runs despite not recording a hit.
“Ezell is a good team, but we got a lot of walks and were able to take advantage of some of their errors that day,” Verner said. “We capitalized on opportunities, and they didn’t.”
Anderson County wrapped up tournament play with an 11-4 loss to Summit Valley.
Finstad doubled, scored, and drove in two runs, while Miranda McCracken went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
