By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Sometimes it’s not all about the winning or losing, but the experience itself. That is the objective behind Coach Matthias Applegate and his staff every spring arranging his trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for his Lady Hounds to play varsity and JV contests at the Cal Ripken Experience. Years from now, the Lady Hounds will not remember the wins or losses in the Volunteer State, but they will have lifetime memories of the time they spent together with teammates, friends and family enjoying softball in the mountains.
This year’s trip was not successful in terms of wins and losses as the Lady Hounds varsity dropped their first game on Friday, 7-5, to the Homer-Center Lady Wildcats, a solid team out of Tennessee, then fell again to the Scott County (Ky) Lady Cardinals by a final count of 15-5. The JV squad dropped two decisions to Scott County, 7-0 on Friday and 14-2 on Saturday.
In the loss to Homer-Center, the Lady Hounds 4-2 after four innings, but faltered late as the Lady Wildcats scored three times int he top of the seventh to secure the victory. In the loss, Manchester banged out 11 hits, three of those apiece coming off the bats of shortstop Peyton Hayslip and pitcher Elliana Applegate. Second baseman Hayven Newland added a pair of hits, including a three-bagger.
In the Saturday contest with Scott County, the Lady Hounds struggled from the start, falling behind 11-4 after three innings as the Lady Cardinals went on to claim the 15-5 run rule win. Even in defeat, the Manchester bats produced 10 hits, two each from Addilyn Hunter, Elliana Applegate and Peyton Hayslip.
On Monday, the Lady Hounds didn’t get a lot of rest after returning home, jumping right back into the fray with a conference home game with Lynchburg. Things didn’t go well for the Lady Hounds as they suffered their first conference loss of the season, falling 8-2 to the Lady Mustangs to fall to 7-4 on the spring.
Box Score
Lynchburg
240 010 1 —8
Manchester
002 000 0 —2
Lynchburg Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): A. Barry 4-2-1-2, Roberts 4-1-1-1, Brown 4-0-2-2, Michael 4-0-0-0, Barnhill 3-0-1-0, Kuipers 3-1-0-0, E. Barry 1-0-0-0, Collins 4-0-1-0, Doss 2-3-2-2, Tong 4-1-1-0, Team 33-8-9-7.
Extra-Base Hits: Brown 2B, Barnhill 2B, Doss HR
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Hunter 4-1-1-0, Applegate 3-0-2-0, McClanahan 4-0-1-0, Brown 3-0-1-2, Carter 3-0-0-0, Hayslip 3-0-1-0, Conley 3-0-0-0, King 3-0-0-0, Newland 3-1-1-0, Team 29-2-7-2.
Lynchburg Pitching:
Barnhill (W) 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Manchester Pitching:
Applegate (L) 7 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
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