Gallatin’s girls softball team finds itself sailing in uncharted waters…and the Lady Bulldogs are loving every minute of the ride.
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Gallatin’s girls softball team finds itself sailing in uncharted waters…and the Lady Bulldogs are loving every minute of the ride.
When the Lady Bulldogs swept to the championship of Saturday’s Albany Tournament by winning three straight games, and then beat Mid-Buchanan and Worth County on Monday and Tuesday, they moved to 9-2 on the season. That’s seven games above the .500 level. No GHS softball team has been that far above the .500 mark in school history. A current eight-game winning streak is tops in the GHS softball record book. The Lady Bulldogs have played six games since last Thursday.
Head coach Jeremy Hobbs explains how the Lady Bulldogs are handling their recent success.
“Seeing as how they haven’t had a lot of success in the past, they are definitely welcoming it,” he said. “They are becoming confident, but they know that anything can happen on any given night. They’re not letting that success change their attitude,” he added. “They are still as excited as they were coming out to play that first game of the season.”
Backed by the pitching of freshman Lacey Dixon, the Lady Bulldogs have earned shutout victories over five of their last seven opponents.
Gallatin outscored opponents, 18-4, in winning Saturday’s tourney. The Lady Bulldogs blanked Stanberry for the second time in less than a week, 4-0, edged Albany, 3-2, in what turned out to be the championship game, and finished up with an 11-2 runaway victory over North Andrew.
Gallatin broke on top, 1-0, in the third inning of the Albany game when Kinsey Batson singled and later scored. That’s the way the score stood until the top of the seventh when Albany put a pair of runners on base (E, 1B) to lead off the inning, and both came home on a triple.
Ayrica Batson opened Gallatin’s half of the inning with a single. Kinsey Batson followed with a single and stole second. With both runners in scoring position, Lacey Dixon hit an rbi-sacrifice fly to left and Kinsey moved to third on the throw back in to the infield. Lindsey Robertson dribbled a grounder, which the second baseman bobbled and threw too late to first. Kinsey scored on the play with the winning run.
Robertson finished with three hits in four plate appearances, including a triple. Hattie Rains and Ayrica Batson also hit safely twice.
Dixon went the distance, struck out six, walked one and allowed only one earned run. She also earned a complete-game victory over Stanberry in the opener by striking out four and walking none.
Offensive stars for the Lady Bulldogs against Stanberry were: Kelsie Parker, with a single and double, two runs and four stolen bases; Dixon, two walks, one run and four stolen bases; Tricia Sprague, single and two walks; Ayrica Batson, single and double; Alyssa Strein, single, walk and run scored.
Gallatin jumped out early on North Andrew and cruised behind Robertson’s nine-strikeout pitching performance. Spearheaded the Lady Bulldog victory were: Jarboe, single, two runs, stolen base and rbi; Robertson, two doubles, run, two rbi; Parker, triple, sacrifice, two rbi, run; Sprague, three walks, three stolen bases and two runs; Hixson, walk and run scored; Kinsey Batson, two singles, two walks, run and rbi; Melissa Everman, walk and run scored; and Samantha Mott, reached on an error, stole a base and came home with a run.
@10left = In the title hunt
Dixon threw a two-hit shutout against Worth County on Tuesday and the Lady Bulldogs came away with a 6-0 victory that kept them in the Grand River Conference title picture. Gallatin takes a 4-1 league record into tomorrow’s (Thursday) important home game against Albany. Maysville and Hamilton also have but one blemish on conference records as teams head into the final two weeks of the regular season. King City owned one loss heading into a Tuesday night game. That result is unknown.
Dixon, Robertson, Parker and Jarboe each produced a couple of hits against Worth County. Kinsey Batson also hit safely. Dixon faced only 24 batters and fanned 10 while giving up only one walk.
The Lady Bulldogs played two games on Monday…or was that just one? Gallatin broke a scoreless tie in the top of the 13th inning when the Lady Bulldogs loaded the bases. Kinsey Batson, who singled and moved to third on a pair of walks, scored when Parker hit a sharp grounder to third that was misplayed.
Hitting leaders included Dixon, who went 4-for-6; Parker, 3-for-4 with two doubles, two stolen bases, a walk, sacrifice and rbi; Robertson, 2-for-5 with a sacrifice; and Jarboe, who also singled.
Dixon’s eye-popping pitching line featured a 13-inning complete-game victory with 14 strikeouts, one walk and five hits allowed.
Dixon earned what was then her second straight shutout victory by fanning 13 batters in a 5-0 win over Stanberry last Thursday. She struck out five of the first six batters she faced and twice pitched her way out of trouble. Stanberry loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth but the GHS freshman fanned three straight. With two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth, she enticed Katie Jensen to flail at a high third strike.
Stanberry came up with only one baserunner through four innings, and she was thrown out trying to get back to first base by Parker after a botched sacrifice bunt attempt.
Gallatin took a 1-0 in the bottom of the first when Parker singled, stole second and came home on a double by Sprague. Jarboe walked, stole a pair of bases and scored on a Robertson single in the third. The Lady Bulldogs added another run in the fourth after Dixon doubled, moved to third on an error and scored on Strein’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Gallatin sent eight batters to the plate in the sixth inning. Robertson picked up her second rbi by driving home Hixson, who reached by way of a walk. Jarboe singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch.