After going deep in the bottom of the fourth inning, Manchester’s Ellianna Applegate receives the “home run hat” from teammate Jaylise Applegate. The blast was part of a 17-4 Lady Hounds’ victory over Ripley on May 8. (Photo by Jordan Carpenter)
Manchester first basemen Hayden King settles under a foul pop-up in action from the Lady Hounds’ conference win over Ripley on May 8. (Photo by Jordan Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Another successful season continues for the Manchester Lady Hounds as they improved their season mark to 15-4 with three Southern Hills Athletic Conference wins last week, downing Whiteoak, Lynchburg and Ripley on successive days. The trio of victories left the Lady Hounds at 8-2 in conference play, two games behind First place Fairfield in the small school division, but with two match ups with the Lady Lions scheduled for this week.
On May 6, the Lady Hounds hosted the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats and disposed of the Lady Cats in impressive fashion, a 16-0 shutout win in five innings. The Manchester offense produced 16 hits in just four at-bats and led 12-0 after two innings. Senior pitcher Rylie Young cranked out a three-run homer in the bottom of the second and in the center circle she threw a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts. Addilyn Hunter went 2 for 2 and scored twice while Ellianna Applegate went 2 for 3 and also scored two runs. In her only at-bat, freshman Hayven Newland went 1for 1 and drove in a pair.
Wednesday afternoon’s game was a lot different as the Lady Hounds hit the road for their only match up of the season with the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs, the team currently holding the top spot in the big school division of the SHAC. The game was a battle from start to finish with Manchester rallying for four runs in their final three at-bats to pull out a 4-3 victory. Leading 3-2 going into the seventh, an RBI two-bagger from Young gave the visitors a two-run advantage which was important as they had top hang on in the bottom of the seventh when the Lady Mustangs scored once and left the tying run at second.
The Manchester offense garnered nine hits, three of them from sophomore speedster Addilyn Hunter, with Young and battery mate Bristynn McClanahan each added two hits. Young went seven innings in the circle for the win, striking out 10 Lynchburg hitters.
On Thursday, Coach Matthias Applegate’s squad finished off a perfect week with another conference win at home and another mercy rule victory, this time the victim being the Ripley Lady Jays. The Manchester girls scored in every at-bat, three in the first, four in the second, three int he third and then a big seven-run fourth inning that put them in position to again enforce the mercy rule in an eventual 17-4 triumph.
Applegate brought out the big stick in the win, going 2 for 3, scoring three times, driving home four, including her fifth home run of the spring, a no-doubter over the left field fence. Junior Mahayla Brown went 2 for 3 and drove home four with Hunter continuing her hot streak by going 2 for 3 and scoring three runs. Young again was the winning pitcher, allowing the Lady Jays just two hits and fanning 12 Lady Jays as Manchester improved to 15 -4 overall.
That first match up with Fairfield was slated for Monday, May 12 in Leesburg with the Lady Lions coming to Manchester on Thursday.
