Lady Indians settle in early
Chattooga finds clarity in a regionopening win over Pepperell.
Chattooga finds clarity in a region-opening win over Pepperell.
Since the first practice, Chattooga softball coach Jeff Bennett has wanted his team to make few mistakes, get ahead early and play smart. To his delight, his players gave him that in their first game of the season.
The Lady Indians rode an early rally and a dominating performance from pitcher Hannah Thrasher to defeat Pepperell 6-2 Tuesday afternoon in Lindale. It was the first Region 7-AA game for both teams, giving both coaches notes on where they are right now.
“We came to play, made one error the whole ballgame and most importantly we were relaxed,” Bennett said. “You don’t usually get that from the first game of the season, but behind Hannah’s pitching we were relaxed.”
Thrasher allowed three hits in seven innings with two hits and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot. Ziyah Underwood reached base four times and scored three times, while Rose Jones had two hits and four RBIs.
Pepperell (1-1, 1-0 7-AA) got hits from Anna Cowan, Sydnie Edwards, and Jaycey Blanton, but the Lady Dragons struggled to get the ball out of the infield most of the evening.
Tuesday’s game was originally meant to come after a week of competition for both teams, but last week’s weather changed all that.
It was Pepperell’s second game of the season after it beat Temple 5-1 on Monday, but was supposed to be its sixth or seventh. A tournament and two games, including a region game against Dade County, were postponed or canceled due to rain.
from B1
Pepperell coach Jeff Rickman didn’t blame the lack of hitting on the late start, and was also not too concerned about the team’s performance in general. He intends to take into account what happened and just move forward to the next game.
“We are just going to learn from today,” he said. “Tomorrow is a new day, just going to practice and do better. This season is still a marathon.”
Thrasher retired the first 11 batters she faced and carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Nearly all of her outs came on ground balls, but it was clear her best stuff was working against a Pepperell team with five seniors in the lineup.
“Hannah is a player, she just works hard,” Bennett said. “She was on today and her pitches were working and that comes from her playing almost all year long. After about the first inning, I knew she had something special today.”
The Lady Dragons finally displayed signs of life at the plate in the sixth when three singles helped score two runs and cut the lead to one. It would be the only inning in which the home team recorded more than one base runner.
Thrasher and Underwood notched singles in the top of the first for Chattooga (1-0, 1-0) with Jones bringing them home on a two-run base hit. Jones brought in Underwood on a sacrifice fly in the third to put the Lady Indians up 3-0. It was Thrasher starting off a rally again in the seventh as Chattooga put the exclamation point on the game with three runs off of four singles and a walk.
Pepperell will be back in action Thursday as the Lady Dragons travel to Armuchee. Meanwhile Chattooga will compete in the Lady Cat Invitational tournament Saturday in Dalton.