Charles Henderson sees strides of improvement despite 9-2 loss to Central-Phenix City

While the scoreboard didn’t reflect it, Charles Henderson coach Trent Givens felt Thursday’s game was one of the better ones his team has played.

Charles Henderson fell to 6A Central-Phenix City 9-2 Thursday night at Hogan’s Hole.

Central led 2-0 early but Charles Henderson cut the gap in half with a RBI ground out, scoring Hannah Calhoun, from Lindsey Fox in the bottom of the third.

The Red Devils responded with six runs in the top of the fourth to pull away from Charles Henderson.

The six-run inning proved to be the difference in the ball game.

“We started the inning with a couple of freebies, with the hit-by-pitch and an error on the bunt,” said Givens. “The kind of got things snowballing for them and allowed them to get some balls to drop in later in the inning. It is a totally different ball game if we keep that flood from starting. We have to learn to deny those big innings.”

Molly Kate Sanders doubled to deep center field in the fifth inning and later scored on Sidney Armstrong single.

The late game hitting and defense was something Givens had wanted to see for some time.

“Earlier in the season we found ourselves getting down and staying down,” Givens said. “We would wind up not making it to the seventh inning against some of these big schools. Tonight we decided to be that other team and finish. We were the team we know we can be. We kept fighting and that is what it takes.

This weekend, the Lady Trojans will make the 193-mile trip to Carbon Hill to take part in a tournament.

Charles Henderson will see fellow 4A schools Dora and the host Carbon Hill, as well as several smaller schools, including the defending 1A state champion Parrish.

“We will play a few that made it to the state tournament last year,” said Givens. “The competition will be pretty good, but we have really started to embrace playing the quality opponents. I am really interested in seeing how we respond up there this weekend.

Charles Henderson opens with Parrish at 2:30 p.m. Friday.