McCracken County catcher Ava Knight has knocked out two home runs in back-to-back nights to propel the Lady Mustangs to a 26-5 record. The second homer came Tuesday night when the Lady Mustangs got their revenge on the Marshall County Lady Marshals in an 11-1 victory.
Marshall got the first laugh early in the season with a 2-1 victory, but a determined McCracken squad evened things out when it mattered most.
“Here in the last month she’s been roping it pretty good,” McCracken County head coach Tony Hayden said on his catchers at-bats. “We’ve gotten her to believe that left center field is a pretty good place to hit and she’s starting to figure that out too.”
Tuesday’s homer marks the fifth of the year for Knight, putting her just shy of the top 50 list in the state for home runs.
“I’m feeling pretty great,” Knight said after the win. “We had to have a lot of energy and intensity to get this win tonight.”
In that first game against Marshall, the Lady Mustangs had just three hits with the Lady Marshals connecting for eight. Tuesday night McCracken tallied 15 hits and held Marshall to just four.
“The message tonight was just to come out and play better than we did that first time,” Hayden said. “Of course we started with that error that allowed them that unearned run, but Addley Leidecker pretty much shut it down the rest of the way against a bunch of good hitters.”
Leidecker put together a 75-53 pitch-strike night with four hits, one run and striking out one against 23 batters. Opposite her, Lilly Hayden and Jillian Kinsall combined for 15 hits, 11 runs (nine earned) one walk and one strikeout.
Nine of the 10 Lady Mustangs that stepped up to the plate connected for a hit. The apex of the night came from the Ava Knight homer over the center field fence to go up 9-1 on the night.
She went 3-for-4 with one run and two RBI. Macy Butler went 2-for-3 with two runs and Kinley Dowdy went 2-for-2 with one run and one RBI.
As coach Hayden mentioned, Marshall capitalized on an error in their very first at-bat. Emma Reynolds nailed a hard ground ball and reached on an error at short. After a pair of outs threatened a short inning, Audrey Kinsely knocked a line drive double to center to score Reynolds and go up 1-0.
Leidecker would knock a line drive double to score Butler after she connected for a single, making it a 1-1 game and the race was on from there. A double from Knight made it a 2-0 game, scoring courtesy runner Shelby Christoff and Kalynn Cunningham stole home thanks to go up 3-1.
McCracken would take the next inning off from scoring anything else, but close out the night with runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
“The synopsis of this game is that we needed to come out and just do everything right,” Hayden said. “From our pitching to our hitting, to being aggressive around the bases and play really good defense. And I think we did all of that tonight.”
McCracken County will remain home the rest of the way, hosting Hickman County on Thursday night, while Marshall will regroup and focus on Madisonville-North Hopkins next Monday on the road.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 11, MARSHALL COUNTY 1
MRSH 1 0 0 0 0 0 X — 1 4 2
MCCR 3 0 2 4 1 1 X — 11 15 1
WP: MRSH — L. Hayden
2B: MCCR — A. Knight 2, A. Leidecker, E. Walker; MRSH — A. Kinsley
HR: MCCR — A. Knight
TB: MCCR — A. Knight 8, A. Leidecker 3, E. Walker 2, K. Dowdy 2, M. Butler 2, M. OBrein 2, L. Hamilton 1, O. Lee 1, S. McDowell 1; MRSH — A. Kinsley 3, A. Harris 1, T. Anderson 1
SB: MCCR — K. Cunningham, L. Hamilton
CS: MCCR — S. McDowell
E: MCCR — O. Lee; MRSH — K. Cavitt, M. Oakley
RECORDS: MCCRACKEN COUNTY (26-5); MARSHALL COUNTY (22-6)