In their penultimate game of the regular season, the McCracken County Lady Mustangs would make it back-to-back notches into the win column when they played host to Trigg County, breaking through late in a defense battle to knock off the Lady Wildcats for the second time this season, 4-0.
“This was a good win for us…we had a great pitching performance, made some plays in the field, and got a couple of big hits that we hadn’t been getting over the last couple of games,” said McCracken County head coach Tony Hayden, following the win. “You put all of those things together, and it really helps in winning a ballgame, because shutting out a team like Trigg is no easy chore.”
Through the first half of the night, defense would do the talking for both the Lady Mustangs and Lady Wildcats, as offense would be at a premium early on. McCracken’s Addison Dudley would duel with Trigg’s Tember Oliver in the circle, keeping respective shutouts while only allowing a combined two hits between them through four.
“She had a few misses, but for most of this game Addison was really hitting her spots,” said Hayden, on Dudley’s performance. “We saw Trigg earlier in the year, had a good scouting report on them, had an idea of what they like, and it was just a great job from her and Ava [Knight] behind the plate.”
However, following a clean top half of the fifth for Dudley, the bats would come alive for the Lady Mustangs. Starting with a one-out double for Skylar Clark, the hits would start flowing for the hosts, with a single for Kennedy Brewer promptly driving in the go-ahead run. Following two more singles to load up the bases, Ava Knight would blow the game open, clearing the bases with a three-run single to make it 4-0 through five.
“Our girls are learning, and they’re figuring out what we’ve been telling them all along; softball can be a game of inches, and it’s just about putting the bat on the ball instead of always trying to hit one out,” Hayden added, on the Lady Mustangs’ breakthrough with the bats. “The lower part of the lineup did exactly what we needed from them before that big hit…I told Ava that even with all the home runs she’s hit, that’s the biggest hit she’s given me all year. That was a rope, and it’s exactly what we needed with the bases load.”
From there, although a triple for Clark in the sixth wouldn’t bring home a fifth run, Dudley would stay sharp through the remainder of the evening to keep the lead in tact. The junior would finish out her complete game shutout having allowed just four hits and no walks, punching out three in the 4-0 victory.
The Lady Mustangs will have next to no time to rest before their next challenge, though, as they face one final stiff test in the regular season Friday when they host Henderson County.
“We want to see the best teams and the best pitching we can before heading into the district tournament, and that’s why we gave ourselves the schedule we did this week,” Hayden concluded. “You look at Henderson County, and that’s exactly what we’re going to get.”
Game stats
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 4, TRIGG COUNTY 0
TCHS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 0
MCHS 0 0 0 0 4 0 X — 4 8 2
WP: A. Dudley; LP: T. Oliver
2B: MCHS — S. Clark; TCHS L. Breckel
3B: MCHS — S. Clark
TB: MCHS — S. Clark 5, Av. Knight 2, Al. Knight 1, K. Brewer 1, K. Dowdy 1, M. Butler 1; TCHS — L. Breckel 3, M. Hendricks 1, V. Grinols 1
E: MCHS — L. Owens, S. Clark
RECORDS: McCracken County (20-11); Trigg County (25-7)