By Mark Carpenter-
The 2019 regular season got underway on Saturday, march 23 for Coach John Kennedy and the Manchester Lady Greyhounds softball squad as they played two games in the “Queen of the Hill” Classic on the luxurious turf at Rock Hill High School. Opening Day was an even split for the Lady Hounds, who opened up by losing s 5-4 heartbreaker to the Chesapeake Lady Panthers and then came back to knock off the Fairland Lady Dragons 8-3 in their second outing of the day.
“The first game was a tough one against a good Chesapeake team that lost to Fairfield 3-0 in last year’s district finals,” said Coach Kennedy. “They returned a lot of nice players including a really good left-handed pitcher, something we don’t see much of. We had the lead for most of the game but just couldn’t seem to come up with that big hit when we needed it. We made a couple of critical errors on defense and a few mental errors on the bases but overall it wasn’t too bad of a start, except for the loss.”
In the first game, the Lady Hounds got the first run of the game in the top of the first when leadoff hitter Aaliyah Smith walked, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a base hit by Brooke Kennedy. Manchester got a two-base hit by Abby Young in the top of the second but left her stranded and in the bottom of the frame, the Lady Panthers tied the game with a single run off of Kennedy, who started the game for the Lady Hounds.
In the top of the third, the Lady Hounds grabbed the lead back when Hannah Hobbs singled, stole second, and scored on a Josie Campbell base hit, but the Lady Panthers rallied with two in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-2 advantage.
The back and forth momentum continued in the top of the fifth when the Lady Hounds came to the plate. Aaliyah Smith drew a walk and came all the way around to score when Hobbs tripled to right. A Kennedy single scored Hobbs and gave Manchester a 4-3 lead, which unfortunately lasted only until the bottom half of the inning when the Lady Panthers touched up Kennedy for two runs to grab a 5-4 advantage.
That one-run Chesapeake lead held up as the Lady Hounds went down in order in the top of the sixth and could only muster a walk to Smith in the top of the seventh as the Lady Panthers escaped with the one-run victory.
In the loss, the Lady Hounds managed just six hits, two each coming from Hobbs and Kennedy. On the mound, Kennedy went five innings and allowed four earned runs to suffer the loss.
Manchester
101 020 0 —4
Chesapeake
010 220 x —5
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): A. Smith 1-2-0-0, Hobbs 4-2-2-1, Kennedy 4-0-2-2, Campbell 2-0-1-1, Jones 3-0-0-0, Lucas 3-0-0-0, Morrison 3-0-0-0, A. Young 3-0-1-0, M. Smith 2-0-0-0, Brown 1-0-0-0, M. Young 0-0-0-0, Team 26-4-6-4.
Extra-Base Hits: A. Young 2B, Hobbs 3B
Manchester Pitching:
Kennedy (L) 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Brown 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 K
The second game of the day matched the Lady Hounds with Fairland and the Manchester girls broke open a close game with a five-run sixth inning to claim the 8-3 win.
The Lady Hounds got a run in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Yasmin Lucas and added a pair on the bottom of the fourth when Kennedy scored on a passed ball, and a Gabby Brown base hit scored Madison Jones to make it 3-1. The Lady Dragons tied the game with two in the top half of the fifth off of Jones, who had entered the game in relief of Brown, the starter.
The game remained deadlocked until the Lady Hounds came to bat in the bottom of the sixth. Campbell began the rally with a base hit to center and one out later, Lucas reached on a dropped third strike. A lineout to right by Brown scored Campbell to give Manchester the lead for good, and Lucas also scampered home on the play to make it 5-3.
Kenzie Bell followed with a single up the middle and promptly swiped second and third and scored on a passed ball. Abby Young singled and came home on the first varsity hit in the career of freshman Grace Hackney and the final run of the frame came when Aaliyah Smith entered as a pinch runner and came home on Hobbs’ second three-bagger of the doubleheader.
With a five-run lead to work with, Jones set down the Lady Panthers in 1-2-3 fashion in the top of the seventh and the Lady Hounds had notched their first of what should be many “W’s” this spring, downing Fairland 8-3.
Manchester banged out 10 hits in the win, getting two apiece from Bell and Abby Young and three RBI’s from Brown, while Jones pitched three innings in relief to pick up the win, the benefactor of the big sixth inning outburst.
“In the second game, we didn’t hit the ball well,” said Coach Kennedy. “We had to adjust to a slower pitcher and it took us awhile to do that.”
“Overall I’d grade the day as a B. We have to find ways to win that first game and put teams away quicker when they’re like the second game. I thought our pitching was good all day and our defense was pretty good for the most part.”
The Lady Hounds were scheduled to begin Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Tuesday with a trip to Eastern Brown and were set to host Portsmouth on Wednesday. The Manchester girls will be at home again on Thursday in SHAC play, hosting the West Union Lady Dragons.
Fairland
000 120 0 —3
Manchester
010 205 x —8
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): A. Smith 3-1-0-0, Hackney 1-0-1-1, Hobbs 4-0-1-0, Kennedy 4-1-1-0, Campbell 3-1-1-0, Jones 2-2-1-0, Lucas 3-1-0-1, Brown 3-0-1-3, Bell 2-1-2-0, A. Young 3-0-2-0, M. Smith 0-1-0-0, Morrison 0-0-0-0, Team 28-8-10-5.
Extra-Base Hits: Kennedy 2B, Hobbs 3B
Manchester Pitching:
Brown 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Jones (W) 3 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 K
