Charles Henderson rallies to score win over Ashford
Published 10:47 pm Friday, April 11, 2014
The big inning has been Charles Henderson’s Achilles heel all season long. It happened again on Friday afternoon, but the ending was a little different than what has happened in the past.
Charles Henderson fended off a six-run sixth inning from Ashford, and scored the final three runs of the game, two coming in the final inning to notch a wild 7-6 win over the Lady Yellow Jackets at the Troy Softball Complex.
Entering the bottom of the seventh inning down by two, Emma Kirkpatrick drew a leadoff walk, followed by a sharp infield single off the bat of Kelcie Gibson
A wild pitch allowed both runners to move up 60 feet, and one batter later Ashlan McCloud tied the game up with a ground ball out to shortstop.
With the infield on, expecting the bunt, Charles Henderson’s Hannah Calhoun laid down a perfect bunt that allowed Gibson to slide in just ahead of the tag from the Ashford catcher.
Charles Henderson head coach Trent Givens would like to take credit for the perfect execution, but had to tip his hat to his players.
“Kelcie read that all on her own,” said Givens. “She mad a great read on the throw. They fielded the bunt, and looked her back. But she took off right when they threw it and got home.”
Givens pointed to the sixth inning as one of the biggest points of the game.
Following Ashford’s six runs in the top of the stanza, Charles Henderson entered the bottom half of the inning trailing 6-4.
The Lady Trojans would push one run across in the bottom of the inning on a hard hit ball by Sidney Armstrong that was mishandled by Ashford’s third baseman. The error allowed Hannah Calhoun to score and pull Charles Henderson within one.
“Battling back and getting that run in the bottom of the sixth was huge,” Givens said. “You can do a whole lot more things down by one, than when you are down by two. We made the most of that in the seventh, but the key run came in the sixth.”
Charles Henderson led the game 4-0 prior to the big inning from Ashford, and posted zeros on the board in every inning except for the sixth.
Molly Kate Sanders picked up the win in the circle, throwing five innings, and allowing nine hits. Lakin Turner notched the save throwing two innings in relief.
Turner allowed just two hits in her two innings of work.
“Molly Kate starting off strong and holding them scoreless for five innings is huge,” said Givens. “Lakin and her are becoming a pretty good little tandem and I am excited to see how they mature the rest of this season.”
Addyson Bryan picked up two hits for Charles Henderson, while Calhoun, McCloud, Sanders and Kirkpatrick got credit for one RBI a piece.
Charles Henderson returns to action on Thursday April 17. The Lady Trojans travel to Smiths Station to take on the 6A Lady Panthers.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m.