Story and photo by Mark Carpenter –
The 2017 softball season came to a close for Coach John Kennedy and his Manchester Lady Greyhounds on May 11 as they ventured to Paint Valley to face off with the Lady Bearcats.
Knowing they had a tough task going in with Paint Valley having one of the top pitchers in southeast Ohio, but the Lady Hounds did themselves respectable, falling to the Lady Cats by a final score of 7-2.
Madison Jones got the starting nod from Coach Kennedy and struggled with her control, walking seven and hitting four batters, which helped the home team pick up a run in each of their first three at-bats, with the leadoff hitter getting on base all three times and scoring all three times.
“They played some small ball and we made a couple of mental mistakes that allowed them to take a lead on us,” said Kennedy. “Considering the opponent, we hit the ball pretty well. We did manage four hits and two runs off their pitching. They didn’t have a ton of hits, but the walks killed us.”
The Lady Hounds’ runs fittingly came on a base hit by Miranda Schiltz, the only Manchester senior who as it turned out, was playing in her final high school contest.
With the loss, the Manchester girls, who are still a very young squad, finished 2017 with an overall record of 9-14.
