KEVIN PEARCEY

Sports Writer

It took some time to adjust, but by the latter part of yesterday’s 4-0 win over Northview of Dothan, the CHHS Lady Trojans had zeroed in on the Lady Cougar’s pitching.

"They’re (Northview) pitching is kind of slow and we’re so used to the better pitching that it takes us awhile to get the timing down," said Charles Henderson head coach Steve Haug.

In the bottom of the fifth, it looked like senior Emily Christian and junior Nicki Wingard had their timing down pat, as Christian drove home CHHS first run with double into left field. Wingard quickly followed her with double RBI that skirted the left field foul line to give the Lady Trojans a 2-0 lead.

"Those were big hits, big hits," said Haug. "That’s the most power I’ve seen out of Emily in a long time. It looks like she’s got her swing back. She’s hitting the ball well."

For the first three innings, however, CHHS was having a hard time making it to second.

In the fourth inning, with one runner on and one out, Christie Bradley hit a double to put Beth Allison on third for the go ahead score. But the next two Lady Trojan batters, Christine Haug and Emily Watkins, were struck out at the plate.

"The swings were looking good early on, but we were just out in front of the plate," said Haug. "But then we finally started making good contact and started getting some hits."

The Lady Trojans defense, however, played superb softball for most of the day.

In the fourth inning, Bradley snagged a sure base hit from her third base slot and then Christian went to the ground to field a ball, rolled on her back, and threw to first, beating the base runner. Bradley fielded the next ground ball to get the final out.

Watkins had a two RBI double in the sixth inning to finish off the scoring for CHHS.

The Lady Cougars had runners at second and third in the final inning of play with just one out, but pitcher Betsy White retired the last two batters to end the game. White finished with nine strike outs on the day.