The Henry County softball team erupted for eight runs in third inning and defeated Owen County 12-1 in five innings at home on Tuesday, April 16.
After playing just one game last week due to weather and traveling to the Florida Softball Beach Bash the week prior, the Lady Cats returned home for the first time since March 26 to take on the Lady Rebels.
“It’s been chaotic because we came from Florida, then all last week we were all over the place with weather and then we finally played, but I feel like we’re finally settling down and back at home and tonight was a good night to get a win and just get us back on our feet,” said head coach Ally Vaughn.
Owen County jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning before the Lady Cats took control.
Following a leadoff single from Hannah Howard and a walk by Abigayle Dempsey, Rachel Howard brought in the Rebels’ lone run of the game on an RBI double to left field.
Henry County had a chance to even the score in the bottom of the first inning with a single from Madeline Lay and a walk by Micah MaGruder. Yet, Owen County caught a pop up at shortstop and caught Lay out at third base to end the frame.
The Lady Cats settled in, though, and Sophia Lay struck out all three batters faced in the second inning.
Henry County’s offense picked up in the bottom of the frame to allow the Lady Cats to take the lead.
A fielder’s choice, an error and a hit by pitch helped Henry County load the bases before Kennadie Hamby launched an RBI single to center field to bring in Peyton Smith and Katie Smith for the tying and go-ahead runs.
Owen County faced another three up, three down outing in the top of the third. Sophia Lay sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a fly out to keep the margin at 2-1.
Meanwhile, the Lady Cats’ offense found their groove and put up eight runs in the bottom of the third to break open the game.
Following a pair of walks, Kennedy Brown ripped an RBI double to left field to bring in Madeline Lay and Kylie Hornback and give Henry County a 4-1 advantage.
Aubree Kirk kept the momentum going with an RBI single to center field to push the lead to 5-1.
Sophia Lay added a single to center field and Katie Smith drew a walk to load the bases before Kirk came home on an error to bring the margin to 6-1.
Kerragan Bowles chipped in a run with Hamby at the plate on the following play, and MaGruder blasted an RBI single to center field later in the inning to extend the lead to 9-1.
Hamby scored on a pickoff attempt at second that went off the mark to bring the lead out to 10-1 at the end of the high-scoring frame.
“At the beginning, there were some adjustments that needed to be made at the plate just with timing, and we realized that. So going on throughout the game, we focused on making those adjustments at the plate and it really worked out,” said Vaughn.
Sophia Lay continued to dominate in the circle and struck out two batters around a ground out to keep the Lady Rebels off the board in the top of the fourth inning.
The Lady Cats added two runs to their lead in the bottom of the inning to push the margin to double digits.
Henry County loaded the bases with three walks, and Katie Smith and Peyton Smith scored on wild pitches to push the Lady Cat advantage to 12-1.
Sophia Lay capped off the game with three straight strikeouts to bring her final total to 12 for the evening.
Katie Smith and Peyton Smith also finished with three runs apiece, and Hamby added two runs, a hit and three RBI.
With the win, Henry County moved to 8-5 overall ahead of another matchup with Owen County on Thursday night.
Ahead of the game, Vaughn hoped to see continual improvement in timing and technique with swings at the plate.
“We’re going to continue to work on getting our front side down at the plate before we throw the rest of our body through to the ball, and I think just slowing our body down at the plate is key before we swing. We’re very aggressive up there, so slowing us down, letting us think and see the ball for a longer time is going to help,” said Vaughn.
The Lady Cats won Thursday’s meeting 12-0 in five innings.