Lady Hounds 4-2 after Tennessee trip

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Returning from their annual weekend trip to Pigeon Forge, the Manchester Lady Greyhounds softball squad sits with a 4-2 record, unbeaten in their Ohio action, but dropping two tough games to tough competition while in Tennessee.

Before departing for the Volunteer State, the Lady Hounds dominated their Ohio schedule, winning four consecutive games in run-rule fashions, outscoring their opponents 66-2. The latest of those four victories came on April 2, when they blanked the visiting Sciotoville East Lady Tartans 11-0.

In the home win over East, the Lady Hounds, with Rylie Young pitching an eventual one-hitter, pushed across a first-inning run when shortstop Ellianna Applegate reached on a fielder’s choice and later scooted home on a wild pitch. Manchester then broke the game open by scoring six times in the bottom half of the second with Applegate (twice), Chloe Freeman, Peyton Hayslip, Hayden King and Kloey Carter crossing the dish.

With a 7-0 lead, the Lady Hounds added their final four runs in the home half of the third. After reaching on an error, Hayslip scored on a Carter sacrifice fly. Young followed with a base hit to left and scored on an Applegate double to center to make it 9-0. A single to left by Bristynn McClanahan brought Applegate across and McClanahan would later come home on a wild pitch to account for the team’s final run. From the center circle, Young blanked the Lady Tartans in the fourth inning and Jadelyn Conley did the same in the fifth to sew up the win.

The first outing in Tennessee saw the Lady Hounds matched up on Friday morning with the McDowell High School Trojans out of Pennsylvania, a solid squad with college commits on the roster. The contest turned out to be a pitcher’s duel between Manchester’s Rylie Young and McDowell’s Gabby DeLuca, who combined to allow just nine hits while striking out 21 hitters.

The Lady Hounds scored first in the top of the fourth when Young tripled and came sliding headfirst into home plate after an errant throw back to the infield. The Trojans tied the score in the bottom of the fifth and took the lead with one in the bottom of the sixth. With the chance to tie in the top of the seventh, the Manchester bats went down in order as they suffered the tough one-run loss.

The Lady Hounds were back in action at the Cal Ripken Experience on Saturday morning, facing the Madison Southern Eagles out of Berea, Kentucky. This contest was the opposite of the previous day as the two teams combined for 16 runs with Manchester coming out on the short end of a 10-6 score.

The Lady Hounds struck first in the top of the first when Rylie Young tripled to center, the first of her three three-baggers on the day, and came home on an Applegate ground out. Manchester would not dent the plate in their next three at-bats while Madison Southern took a 6-1 lead into the top of the fifth, when the Lady Hounds struck for four runs to make it a one-run affair.

Kloey Carter opened the top of the fifth with a base hit and moved up on a bunt single by Keeley Monroe. Both of those runners came home when Young tripled to left, followed by a three-base hit from Applegate that scored Young to make it 6-4. A run-scoring ground out by Mahayla Brown scored Applegate to make it a one-run game.

Unfortunately, the Lady Hounds couldn’t continue that momentum as the Eagles took advantage of some Manchester fielding miscues to score one in the bottom of the fifth and three in the bottom of the sixth to pull away for the 10-6 victory.

The Lady Hounds did manage eight hits in the loss with Young leading the way, going 3 for 3 with three triples, scoring two runs. Ellianna Applegate drove home a pair, while Young took the loss from the circle, allowing 10 runs, only four earned, while also striking out 10.

”We played Madison Southern (KY) which is equivalent to DII in Ohio and McDowell (PA) equivalent to DI,” siad Manchester head coach Matthias Applegate. “Both teams had college commits at pitcher and several other players as well. This level of competition should prepare us for our upcoming tough league schedule as well as a deep tournament run. We struggled a little adjusting to how fast the turf was playing, resulting in a few costly mistakes. We battled and never quit despite some mistakes and going down 05-0 against Madison Southern, which is huge as we move forward. We hope to build off these high level competition games and get things rolling as we have two big league games this week (Fairfield and Eastern).”

”We stayed in a cabin this year for the first time which was great for team building activities and we also visited Dollywood and The Island.”

Though the past week of rain puts this week’s schedule in jeopardy, the Lady Hounds were scheduled to be back in action on Tuesday, April 8, hosting Portsmouth Clay and then hosting Augusta the following day, both being non-conference action. Coach Applegate’s squad gets back into Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Thursday, with yet another home game, hosting the Fairfield Lady Lions and then going on the road Friday to Eastern Brown.

Sciotoville East

000 00 —0

Manchester

164 0x —11

S. East Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Howe 2-0-0-0, Weiss 2-0-0-0, Geedo 2-0-1-0, Lewis 0-0-0-0, Aublecht 2-0-0-0, Shope 2-0-0-0, Merrian 1-0-0-0, Sheffield 2-0-0-0, Carter 2-0-0-0, Team 16-0-1-0.

Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Carter 0-1-0-1, Neria 1-0-0-0, Young 3-1-1-1, E. Applegate 3-3-2-1, Fisher 0-0-0-0, McClanahan 2-1-2-2, Brown 2-0-1-0, Johnson 1-0-1-0, Barlow 0-0-0-0, J. Applegate 1-1-0-0, Freeman 1-1-0-0, Newland 1-0-0-0, Hayslip 1-2-0-0, Conley 1-0-0-0, King 2-1-0-1, Spires 0-0-0-0, Monroe 0-0-0-0, Team 19-11-7-6.

Extra-Base Hits: E, Applegate 2B (2)

East Pitching:

Shope (L)- 3 IP, 7 H, 11 R, 7 ER, 7 BB, 1 K

Sheffield- 1 IP, 1 BB

Manchester Pitching:

Young (W)- 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 12 K

conley- 1 IP, 2 K