Gallery by Tina Laney
Hico – The ocean cannot be seen from Fayette County.
That didn’t stop the Tide from rolling in to Midland Trail High School all the way from Boone County Saturday afternoon.
The ladies from Sherman came to Hico with bats in hand and put on a full-scale hitting display.
Pounding out 18 hits, including four home runs, the Tide needed only three innings to top James Monroe 15-0 and Midland Trail 18-0.
“We have days like this. For the most part this year we have hit the ball pretty good,” Sherman head coach Terri-Dawn Williams said. “We have had a couple of games where we haven’t hit the ball, but we have had more games where we have hit thee ball.”
Prior to the Sherman games, Trail and James Monroe battled in a key regional clash with the Patriots taking a 7-0 victory.
“That was a good game for us. We were finally able to string one together,” Midland Trail head coach Candace Young said. “It was kind of the game I have been waiting on. As a coach you can always nitpick, but overall we put one together and I was proud of them.”
The Mavericks threatened in two of the first three frames against the Patriots, but failed to push a run across.
Trail broke the scoreless tie by putting four on the board in the bottom of the third inning.
Freshman Hannah Beeson led off the inning with a base hit before a one-out single from Sydney Sheets and a walk to Chezney Skaggs loaded the bases.
A walk to Meghan Gill and a wild pitch made it a 2-0 game. Madison Campbell then worked the third walk of the inning to re-load the bases, still with just one out.
The Mavericks were poised to escape further damage after the second out of the inning was recorded at home on ground ball, but Katie Hawkins doubled the Patriots advantage with a solid single for a 4-0 lead.
The third-inning outburst was all that Gill needed in the circle. The senior hurler allowed just five hits over seven innings of work and struck out six to record the win.
“The win gives us some confidence moving forward. We started out the season a little bit on a down-turn, but we seem to be climbing and hopefully we will keep getting better. (Madison) Campbell found her stride and smacked two strong balls which was nice to see and Meg pitched great,” Young said. “You can’t ask for a kid to throw a better complete game. Overall we did our jobs and that is all I can ask.”
In game two against Sherman, James Monroe worked runners to second and third with two outs, but could not strike first.
The Tide exploded in their first trip to the dish scoring 10 runs before the third out was recorded.
Four walks, an error and five hits from the Tide led by a two-run double from Hailee Skeens accounted for the damage.
Sherman tacked on four more in the second frame keyed by another blast from Skeens. In her third trip to the plate, the senior shortstop rattled the concession stand in left field for a two-run blast.
Chloe Treadway opened the third inning with a triple and scored on an error to end the game.
“We weren’t hitting the ball and I truly believe everybody was out in front of the ball. After playing (Shady Spring ace) Paige Maynard the other day, everybody was working on getting their swings a little faster. It definitely showed today because we were out in front of the ball,” James Monroe head coach Jack Phipps said. “Today is hard to explain after playing pretty well all season. We played two good teams here today, so we just have to go back in and work on some stuff.”
Trail held Sherman scoreless to open the final game of the day, but self-destructed in the second inning and never recovered.
An opening single from Zoey Steele was followed by three miscues from Trail which led to a five-run inning for the Tide. The big blow of the inning came from Lauren Guthrie who drilled a three-run home run.
“Probably the best we have hit the ball in two games back-to-back. One through nine hit the ball up and down the lineup today,” Williams said “We like to see them attack the first strike because most of the time that is the best strike you’ll see. We want to be aggressive at the plate.”
After working nine hard innings, Gill was lifted bringing a bit of inexperience to the circle for Trail and the hot-hitting Tide recorded 10 hits and 13 runs to seal the game.
Amidst the outburst, Skeens hit her second homer of the day and Bailey Lafferty also went deep. Guthrie drove in three more runs on a sacrifice fly and a two-run double to give her six RBI for the game.
In the circle for the Tide, junior Chloe Treadway yielded just one hit in each game.
“I knew Sherman was going to smack the ball. We came in with a game plan to win the first game and I knew that would wear Gill down just a little bit,” Young said. “But we also were at a disadvantage when they went a short game with James Monroe. I thought in the first inning we were pretty evenly match before the gas kind of ran out for us.”
JM: 000 000 0 – 0 5 4
MT: 004 021 x – 7 8 0
WP: Meghan Gill; LP: Bryleigh Thomas
Hitting – JM: Chloe Shires 2-4, Shannon Phipps 1-2, Haley Hunnicut 1-3, Bryleigh Thomas 1-1; MT: Sydney Sheets 1-3, Chezney Skaggs 1-3, Meghan Gill (rbi), Madison Campbell 2-3 (2b, 3b, rbi), Alexis Dozier 1-4 (rbi); Katie Hawkins 2-3 (2 rbi), Hannah Beeson 1-3.
JM: 000 – 0 1 2
S: (10)41 – 15 8 1
WP: Chloe Treadway; LP: Shannon Phipps
Hitting – JM: Emily Bailey 1-1; S: Guthrie 1-1 (rbi), Skeens (2-3) 2b, HR, 4 rbi), Treadway 2-2 (3b, rbi), Shaylea Lewis 1-2, Kaitlyn MIlam 2-2.
S: 05(13) – 18 13 0
MT: 000 – 0 1 4
WP: Treadway; LP: Gill
S: Guthrie 2-3 (HR, 2b, sac, 6 rbi), Skeens 2-3 (HR, 3 rbi), Lafferty 1-3 (HR, 3 rbi), Treadway 1-3 (2b), Zoey Steele 2-2, Summer Harvey 2-3 (rbi), Lewis 1-2 (rbi), Madison Anglisano 1-2 (rbi); MT: Campbell 1-3.
