By Mark Carpenter
The 2021 softball season got off to a good start for Coach John Kennedy and his Manchester Lady Greyhounds as they claimed victories in two of their first three outings. On Saturday, March 27 the Lady Hounds traveled to the beautiful facilities at Rock Hill High School where they opened their season with a doubleheader facing Ironton in game one and Chesapeake in the nightcap.
The Manchester squad split those first two games, falling to Ironton 5-2 but bouncing off the mat to grab a 15-5 win over Chesapeake.
In the battle with Ironton, the Lady Hounds faced one of the top pitchers in southeast Ohio in Keegan Moore, who has already committed to Ohio University, but Manchester had a pretty good arm on the mound in senior Brooke Kennedy and the pair of hurlers went toe to toe for five innings.
In the top of the first, Ironton got a run across and that was all the scoring until the Lady Tigers pushed another score across in their half of the sixth to take a 2-0 lead. That lead vanished in the Manchester half of the sixth when the Lady Hounds got run-scoring hits from Jenna Campbell and Kameyl Carter. The deadlock didn’t last long either as Ironton took advantage of some shoddy defense behind Lady Hounds’ reliever Emilee Applegate to plate three runs on their way to a 5-2 victory.
“We faced a tough pitcher and we had six kids playing their first varsity game,” said Coach Kennedy. “But our girls played right with them. Brooke kept them in check for five innings and Emilee did a great job getting out of a jam in the two innings she worked. Though their pitcher struck out 13 hitters, we still outhit them, but we made a few too many mistakes and in the end it cost us.”
Undeterred by the tough loss in the first game, the Lady Hounds bounced back in a big way in game two., riding the wave of a big eight-run second inning to run-rule Chesapeake in five, 15-5.
After spotting Chesapeake four runs in the first two innings, the Lady Hounds exploded in their half of the second. Manchester got hits from Applegate, Carter, Gabby Brown, and Abby Young, but the big blow came from senior Yasmin Lucas. With the bases full of Lady Hounds Lucas drilled a shot down the right field line that plated all three runners, then ran past the stop sign at third base and scored herself when the throw to the plate was wide. When the smoke cleared, the scoreboard flipped, Manchester up 8-4.
Chesapeake got one of those back in the top of the third, but that was all they would score. In the bottom of the third, the Lady Hounds matched that to keep the four-run advantage, then added one more in the bottom of the fourth to make it 10-5.
The Lady Hounds decided to call it a night in the bottom half of the fifth and board the bus for the long haul home as they plated five runs to enforce the run rule, with Lucas crossing the plate with the game-clincher.
Applegate picked up the win for the Lady Hounds, going the full five innings, allowing five runs and six hits, with three strikeouts. Lucas was the big bat, driving home five runs, pacing a 10-hit Manchester attack.
“We fell behind early in game two, but our girls rallied , came up with a big inning, and never looked back,” said Coach Kennedy. Emilee picked up her first varsity win and everyone in our lineup contributed.”
On the road again, the Lady Hounds made it two out of three on Monday night as Kennedy tossed a shutout and Manchester downed Portsmouth Clay 3-0.
The Lady Hounds were back in action on Tuesday as they hosted their first home game, a Southern Hills Athletic Conference tilt with West Union.
BOX SCORES
Game One (Ironton)
Ironton
100 001 3 -5
Manchester
000 002 0- 2
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Young 4-0-0-0, Kennedy 4-0-1-0, Lucas 4-0-1-0, Applegate 1-1-1-0, Campbell 3-1-1-1, Carter 2-0-1-1, Roberts 3-0-0-0, Brown 2-0-2-0, Rideout 3-0-0-0, Hobbs 1-0-0-0, Team 28-2-7-2.
Extra-Base Hits: Brown 2B, Campbell 2B, Carter 2B, Lucas 2B
Pitching: Kennedy (L) 5 IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K
Applegate 2 IP, 2H, 3R, 1 ER, 2BB, 3 K
Game Two (Chesapeake)
Chesapeake
131 00- 5
Manchester
081 15 –15
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Young 4-2-2-2, Kennedy 2-2-0-0, Lucas 4-3-3-5, Applegate 3-2-1-0, Campbell 4-1-1-2, Carter 3-1-1-0, Roberts 2-2-0-0, Brown 2-2-2-2, Dunn 1-1-0-0, Hobbs 0-0-0-0, Rideout 0-0-0-0, Team 26-15, 10-11.
Extra-Base Hits: Carter 2B, Lucas 2B, 3B
Pitching: Applegate (W) 5 IP, 6H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1BB, 3 K
