Trojans fall to Eufaula twice in area tournament
Published 10:32 pm Thursday, May 5, 2016
The Charles Henderson Lady Trojans were eliminated in the Class 5A Area 3 Tournament on Thursday.
They began the day with a 13-1 loss to Eufaula and after a 10-0 win over Greenville they were eliminated after once again falling to Eufaula 6-3.
“We didn’t start off good,” said Trojans head coach Robin Snyder. “It was just one of those games where they scored runs with two outs. We had some mistakes in the field and it went down hill from there.”
Trojan starting pitcher Lakin Turner pitched all seven innings in game one. Turner let up 13 runs but only four were earned. The Trojan defense committed eight errors.
“We have made a lot of errors over the last couple of weeks,” Snyder said. “We do good in practice, but we get into games and we start making mistakes. We just didn’t perform when we needed to perform.”
The Trojans mustered five hits, led by Turner who had two. Emma Kirkpatrick, Tucker Earles and Jaicee Todd had the other three hits for the Trojans.
In game two the bats woke up for the Trojans. Charles Henderson scored 10 runs on six hits. Greenville committed eight errors, compared to just one by the Trojans. Armstrong, Kirkpatrick, Molly Kate Sanders, Turner, Todd and Whitaka lowery all had hits for the Trojans.
The Trojans scored their first three runs of the game in the bottom of the second inning. Turner scored the first run on an error by the catcher. Kirkpatrick had the big hit in the inning when she tripled scoring Lindsey Fox and Lowery.
Charles Henderson continued their offense in the bottom of the third when two more runs came across to score. Turner tripled in Abbie Barron and then came around to score on a wild pitch to go up 5-0.
The game ended in after five when the Trojans scored five more runs, three of which came on two errors and a wild pitch. Todd ended the game with a double that scored both Sanders and Turner.
With their season on the line in game three, The Trojans jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second inning. Kirkpatrick hit a three-run homerun that scored both Todd and Lowery.
That was the last time the Trojans would put a run on the board. Eufaula quickly scored four runs in the top of the third, followed by a run in both the fourth and seventh innings.
“We had our opportunities and we blew them,” Snyder said. “We jumped out with three-run homerun and then they jumped right back and got four runs. We should have come back and shut them down. That’s what we have to learn to do.”
Kirkpatrick pitched all seven innings against Eufaula; she let up six runs, five of them earned on eight hits. Kirkpatrick had two hits in the game including her homerun and had three RBIs.
The loss for the Trojans puts an end to their season they finished the regular season 13-15.