NORTH PORT — Charlotte High softball coach Dave Anthony’s expectations are so high for his team that a 6-2 win over North Port didn’t sit right with him on Tuesday night.
The Tarpons rapped out 14 hits and led wire-to-wire, but stalled out in the middle innings — stranding nine runners — as they kept the Bobcats in the game until the final out at North Port High School.
But even Anthony couldn’t be too mad at his team’s seventh win in its past nine games.
“I don’t feel like we barrelled the ball up at all,” Anthony said. “We also missed multiple bunt situations early in the game, which is something we’ve been working on, so I was a little disappointed we didn’t get those runs to get us that big cushion that we wanted early in the game.
“We dinked it around, but I felt like their pitcher kept us off-balance and we didn’t get that many barrels, so credit to her.”
Charlotte (10-6) scored in each of the first three innings — on an RBI single by Dava Hoffer, an RBI single by Arista Turner and a wild pitch — but didn’t score again until it added on two more runs in the seventh inning.
That was due in large part to Bobcats pitcher Payson Rumley, who relieved starting pitcher Konstantine Belgrade to open the third inning.
Rumley allowed three runs on two walks and six singles, with most of the damage coming in the final inning.
“Rumley was great tonight,” North Port coach Chelsea Lowy said. “She was hitting her spots. She does a little bit of off-speed stuff. Stuff that some of these teams don’t typically face. So just to bring in a different look really kinda brought a different vibe to the game and worked in our favor.”
But the Tarpons had their own pitchers to counter Rumley.
Hoffer held the Bobcats scoreless on two singles and a walk with a pair of strikeouts in her four innings of work. Mia Flores followed Hoffer, and North Port didn’t hit much better against her, either, scratching across a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh on a single by Caitlyn Paige, an RBI triple by Lauren Boff and a fielding error.
“I’m very comfortable with our pitching,” Anthony said. “It wasn’t our best pitching performance, but our ‘B’ pitching performance is still enough to keep us in most games. I’m very confident that I can roll out any of our pitchers and get a good performance.”
When it was all said and done, 10 Charlotte players recorded at least one hit, led by Lexi Fitzgerald (2-for-4 with a steal and a run) and Amber Chumley (2-for-4 with a steal and a run).
Paige (2-for-4), Cailinne Kelly (1-for-4 with a double) and Boff (1-for-4 with a triple and a run) led the Bobcats.
“I’ve been really confident in our hitting the past two weeks, so maybe we’ll get back on it now,” Anthony said. “We have eight games in the next nine days so now would be a good time to get hot.”
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