NEW MARKET — Audrey Lowry’s left-arm and the Bruins’ bats lifted Tri-West past Southmont 9-0 in Sagamore Conference softball on Tuesday.
The Bruins (1-0, 1-1) plated two in the first and seven in the second behind 10 hits for the game, while Lowry struck out 15 Mounties, allowing just four hits and walking one. Offensively, Lowry added a two-run double, while Maddie Dickerson cleared the center-field fence with a second inning grand slam.
Southmont drops to 1-1 on the season, but played the defending Sagamore Conference champions even after two innings. Mountie coach Dan Taylor made a mound visit midway through the Bruins’ 7-run second inning at-bat — completely changing the confidence of his team.
“We had a difficult moment,” Taylor said. “They were coming at us pretty hard offensively and we had a situation where we didn’t cover second on a steal and that’s what got me up. And I just told the girls ‘look, you’re behind to Tri-West, one of the best teams in 3A, 6-0. So the rest of the game we are going to treat it like it’s 0-0. Let’s battle a little bit.’ And I thought after that point in time, even though Audrey (Lowry) still struck out a lot of batters, we battled, had better at-bats, and defensively played better and I’m just really proud of my girls for doing that.”
Tri-West plated three more runs after Taylor’s visit in the second, but Southmont starter Macie Shirk found a groove through the Bruins’ final five at-bats. Shirk allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits, while striking out three, but allowed just three hits and no runs through the final five innings.
“It’s interesting, last year the same thing happened over there (Tri-West), and we took her (Shirk) out. And when I went out there, she said ‘leave me in,’” Taylor said about his senior pitcher. “She said, ‘I need to get my work in and get my innings in.’ It was really a winning attitude by Macie. As a senior she knows that for what our team needs is for her to keep pitching. And of course when Macie is in the circle, our girls are more confident.”
Southmont had just four hits offensively, the first by starting shortstop Chelsea Veatch in the fourth inning, followed by three more in the fifth and seventh from a pair of pinch-hitters.
“Jenna Grino hits it over their head because they’re playing in because she’s a slap hitter and then Brady Spencer, I thought it might be out for a moment, just clobbered one,” Taylor added. “We try to play a lot of girls, because we have a lot of depth, but what you see is ‘give girls chances and look what they’ll do.’”
Southmont and Tri-West will play again on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
