Lindside – James Monroe has had trouble holding the Midland Trail offense in check as of late.
The Mavericks fared no better Tuesday night in the Class A Region 3 championship opener.
An early advantage eroded quickly for James Monroe which fell 12-4 in six innings to Trail in Lindside.
Using lengthy at-bats to exercise their plate discipline while also taking advantage of two James Monroe errors, the Patriots drew eight free passes to rebound from an error-marred first inning that saw them overcome two miscues to limit the damage to a run.
From there the visitors took off and never looked back, forcing James Monroe starter Bryleigh Thomas to throw 143 pitches.
“I think the girls just came in with the right mindset that we’re looking for our pitch and we’re going to foul off pitches we don’t like until we get that,” Midland Trail coach Candace Young said. “I can’t say enough about Katie’s (Hawkins) at-bats because I think she had about three that were 15-20 pitches and that was phenomenal. It was everything just kind of working and seeing the ball great so when she does connect it’s going to be nice so we just kind of look for our hit and put the stick on it when we’re supposed to.”
The Mavericks took charge early with Chloe Shires reaching on an error and later scoring as the result of an error at second base.
An overjoyed James Monroe bunch quickly saw the smiles they had on their faces after the first inning fade when Trail’s Layla Thompkins blasted a home run over the fence in right field to open the second, tying the game.
Hawkins, who saw 29 pitches in four at-bats Tuesday, followed with a single and scored two batters later when Jesse Skaggs hit into an error. A sac fly from Sydney Sheets scored Lexi Dozier and when the smoke cleared Trail led 3-1.
The floodgates opened in the fourth when Hawkins, Dozier and Skaggs all walked to open the frame with Sheets’ two-run double scoring the former two. Chezney Skaggs kept the momentum rolling with her own RBI single and a two-run single from Meghan Gill extended the advantage to 8-1.
The Mavericks got one back in the bottom of the frame but largely suffered from the inability to pile up hits. They were able to put the ball in play, striking out just three times but senior Shannon Phipps was the only Maverick that could find the gaps, collecting three of her team’s four hits through the first five innings.
“We hit the ball good tonight,” James Monroe head coach Jack Phipps said. “We hit three that were line drives to left field but right at the person. They didn’t even have to move but she caught them and it’s hard to play out here with that sun going down. But those are good plays. We hit the ball hard tonight. Shannon hit the ball well and I have no complaints over that. We had six hits and they had eight or nine so it wasn’t like we didn’t hit. Now our bad inning when we had three walks right off the bat killed us. They put together a couple of hits, boom – five or six runs in that inning.”
After the Patriots tacked on one more run in the top of the fifth, bad turned to worse for the hosts.
Three of the first four Trail batters reached base, though a fielder’s choice and a tag at the plate on an attempted steal of home nearly diffused the situation.
It was all for naught as Thompkins capped her 3-for-4 day with a single up the middle that plated three, including herself. The grounder was misplayed by the centerfielder, rolling to the fence and allowing Thompkins to round the bases and score the 12th and final run of the evening for the Patriots.
James Monroe nearly kept the game going with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth but Trail pitcher Meghan Gill induced a groundout to strand two in scoring position and end the game.
Now the series shifts to Hico where the Patriots will have the chance to clinch a state tournament berth should they win on Wednesday. If James Monroe wins, the best-of-3 series will shift back to Lindside for a winner-take-all contest on Thursday.
“I pointed to the scoreboard and we took to heart a little bit what happened in the sectional tournament,” Young said. “We came off the first Greenbrier West game 8-0 and we come to our place – and I don’t even think we got complacent, it’s just anything can happen. Softball’s that sport where if things fall into place ahead, one swing of the bat changes everything. It’s that kind of game. I won’t say we’re going to be complacent but we’re going to come in and stay humble and play it as it is and play as if we were down.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
MT: 030 513 – 12 9 3
JM: 100 102 – 4 6 2
Pitching and catching – MT: Gill and Sheets; JM: Thomas and Hunnicut. WP: Gill, LP: Thomas.
Hitting – MT: Sheets 1-3 (3 RBI), C. Skaggs 2-3 (RBI), Gill 2-4 (2 RBI), Thompkins 3-4 (HR, 3 RBI), Hawkins 1-1, Dozier 0-2 (RBI); JM: Phipps 3-3 (RBI), Shires 0-4 (RBI), Hunnicut 0-4 (RBI), Weikle 1-3, Vass 1-1, Bert 1-1.