By Devin Smith

On a cold and rainy Tuesday evening in Troy the Charles Henderson softball team couldn’t keep up with the bats of the Northview Cougars.

A seventeen-hit outing from the Cougars would be more than enough to return home with the 11-1 victory over the Lady Trojans.

Charles Henderson head coach Trent Givens refused to push blame from the loss on the difficult weather or a few debatable calls that were made in the game, but rather on what he and his squad can control.

“We just have to play our game,” Givens said. “We struggled at the plate a little and balls that we did hit were mostly right to the other team, the made the plays when they had to and we just couldn’t get the ball to drop tonight.”

The Trojans hung in early through the first two innings before Northview widened the scoring margin with a three-run inning to open the third.

Charles Henderson made a strong attempt to fight back in the game in the bottom half of the frame before Cougars pitcher Lindsay Massey stuck out the final batter of the inning with the bases loaded.

In the fourth the Trojans again managed to force Northview of the plate relatively quickly but still could not gain any ground against the Cougars pitcher at the plate.

Six hits in the fifth would translate to a four-run inning for Northview that would effectively put the game out of reach for Charles Henderson.

Massey played a big part in subduing the Trojans all night with an impressive showing from the mound, throwing an impressive eleven strikeouts in the complete game win.

Charles Henderson finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth following the Cougar’s scoring barrage with an RBI double from Lindsey Fox.

Fox would finish on the day with a pair of hits from the plate to account for two of the Lady Trojans five for the game.

Givens noticed the will to fight still in his team late despite the scoreboard and was impressed by their attitude and work ethic.

“The score might have been ugly but the girls fought hard and never gave up,” Givens said. “They kept up the energy in the dugout and kept making adjustments on the plate and also started getting on base more. We’ve just got to start that earlier from now on.”

The Lady Trojans will be back in action Thursday night when they take on Smith Station at home, first pitch is set for 6:00 p.m.