VEEDERSBURG — Fountain Central softball present and future continues to shine bright. Thursday FC welcome WRC foe Covington to Veedersburg after downing the Trojans on Tuesday. Unlike the 10-3 win on Tuesday, this one had to much more hard fought. What proved to be the difference in the game was after giving up the lead and trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the young Mustangs responded with three of their own to take a 6-5 lead and hold off the Trojans in the top of the seventh to complete the WRC sweep.
“Sweeping a team like Covington is something that we haven’t done in a very long time,” Mustang coach Ric Walke said. “You have to give Covington a lot of credit for how they responded after Tuesday. They weren’t happy with how things went and played really well tonight. When it came down to us needing to make some plays I think I was more nervous than our girls were. They didn’t falter and Kacey (Kirkpatrick), I had no doubt that she’d be able to close the deal for us in the circle.”
Fountain Central (6-7, 4-6 WRC) got their big inning started when freshman Lilly Bennett singled as did Sami Krout. Audree Brown drew a walk to load the bases for the Mustangs best player Zoe Foxworthy-Dejournett. All the junior did was slap a bases-clearing double to score all three runners.
The Mustangs got their six runs on seven hits. Foxworthy-Dejournett had two of the seven with Kyra Kiger, Bennett, Krout, and Kirkpatrick all having a hit each.
“We made a couple of fielding errors tonight, but none of them hurt us,” Walke added. “That’s something that we normally haven’t been able to do. But as of late we’re playing really good defense. This team just keeps fighting and really matured tonight. All of our freshman contributed and just keep getting better and I’m just so happy with what we got right now.”
The sixth win of the season for the Mustangs surpasses their win total from a season ago when the Mustangs won just five games. Fountain Central has had an influx of young players playing and contributing right away. Those four freshman are combined with a strong junior class which features six juniors. The best part about the Mustangs is they have just a single senior.
“These girls just keep competing and really feed off of one another,” Walke said of his team. “Sometimes they try to one-up each other which can get us in trouble sometimes, but right now it’s fun to watch. We use our base-running to our advantage and most of these girls know they have the green light. We do run ourselves out of some situations but it pays off for us right now and we’re going to continue to do it this way.”
On the mound Kirkpatrick threw all seven innings and picked up the win. She allowed five hits and only one of the Trojans five runs were earned. She also struck out nine while walking just one.
The Mustangs will be back at home on Friday when they take on North Putnam.
