By Dan Smith

The Lady Trojans of Charles Henderson High bounced back from a Wednesday setback with a big 5-1 win over Pike County High School Thursday in Troy.

CHHS and the Lady Bulldogs were scoreless after one inning, but Alley Stamey scored in the bottom of the second after she reached on an outfield error, Kelsey Gibson singled and Stamey scored on a single by Emma Kirkpatrick.

PCHS scored one run in the top of the third inning when Shanna Lee singled and scored on a double by Brooke Bennett to knot the score at 1-1.

The Lady Trojans went up 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Tucker Earles reached on a walk, Gibson drove her home when she reached on a fielder’s choice, and Gibson later scored on a wild pitch for the 3-1 advantage.

Earles led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a single, went to second on a passed ball and third on a stolen base, and scored on an infield ground out by Stamey. Gibson singled and also scored in the sixth after stealing second, reaching third on a passed ball and scoring on a ground out by Lindsey Fox and a 5-1 lead.

CHHS was led at the plate by Gibson and Kirkpatrick with two hits each, while Earles and one hit.

Hannah Calhoun was strong on the mound for the Lady Trojans, allowing one run on only three hits, walking two and striking out one.

Coach Heather Mitchell of CHHS was pleased with the way the Lady Trojans responded after dropping a Wednesday contest.

“We came out a little sluggish, and I told our girls we kind of carried over what happened yesterday into today,” said Coach Mitchell. “But for us, it is always a work in progress. No team is perfect. Every team practices, they work on hitting, they work on fielding, and that’s what we do. Sometimes it translates into a game, and sometimes we lose our way and find it.

“We never put together a lot of hits today, but we did have some timely hits, and when people were on base we stepped up and moved them around, and moved them in. That’s what it is about. If you do those things, you are going to win. You hold them off on defense, we gave up only one run. In my book, if we gave up none that would have been better. But we won, and I can live with that. We’ve just got to keep working. You want to peak at the right time in the season. We have a lot of season left, and we still have that time that we can peak, and I hope it is the Area Tournament.”

The Area Tournament begins the weekend of May 1-2, where a hot tournament could earn the Lady Trojans a spot in the AHSAA Class 5A Super Regional softball tournament.

“I thought Hannah Calhoun did a great job on the mound today,” Coach Mitchell said. “She got people out when we needed them out. Last inning was a three-pitch inning, you can not ask for more.”