SOFTBALL: Kirkpatrick leads Mustangs to sweep of Chargers

Game 1

Fountain Central 18, North Montgomery 0

FC 0 0 2 3 0 1 12 — 18 24 0

NM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 1 2

Hits: FC (Kirkpatrick 5, Wood 4, Rahm 4, Webb 2, Hershberger 2, Massey 2, Medley 2, Babb, Golia, Brown), NM (Rominger).

Runs: FC (Rahm 4, Webb 3, Massey 2, Wood 2, Krout, Parks, Pate, Marshall, Golia, Kirkpatrick, Babb).

RBI: FC (Kirkpatrick 6, Babb 2, Golia 2, Marshall 2, Rahm 2, Webb, Wood, Hershberger, Green).

WP: Kirkpatrick 7IP 1H 0R 5BB 12K

LP: Shaw 7IP 24H 18R 16ER 2BB 3K

Game 2

Fountain Central 15, North Montgomery 6

FC 1 1 0 3 4 2 4 — 15 10 5

NM 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 — 6 2 0

Hits: FC (Marshall 3, Kirkpatrick 2, Massey, Medley, Golia, Webb, Rahm), NM (Rominger, Morehouse).

Runs: FC (Massey 4, Webb 4, Rahm 2, Krout 2, Brown, Medley, Earlywine), NM (Church 2, Rominger 2, Dulin, Keller).

RBI: FC (Kirkpatrick 5, Medley 4, Marshall 3, Massey, Golia, Hershberger).

WP: Kirkpatrick 5IP 1H 3R 2ER 2BB 8K

LP: Raff 7IP 10H 15R 15ER 15BB 4K

LINDEN — Kacey Kirkpatrick lifted Fountain Central to a double-header sweep of North Montgomery in softball on Friday night. 

The Mustang freshman pitched a one-hit shutout and had five hits and six RBI in the game one 18-0 win, and picked up the win from the circle and added another five RBI in the 15-6 game two win.

“She pitched really well,” Fountain Central coach Ric Walke said. “The first game we did play well defensively. When Kacey is pitching and she’s on, we play a little bit better defensively and we step it up a little bit more.”

Fountain Central led just 6-0 before piling on 12 runs in its last at-bat. The Mustangs pounded out 24 hits. Hannah Wood and Kendal Rahm each had four hits to add to Kirkpatrick’s five. 

“It’s been like that throughout the season, there’s always been that one inning that kind of makes the score look like it wasn’t a game, but you have to keep your head up. That score was definitely not the way the game was,” North Montgomery coach Rob Earley said.

The Chargers (0-20-1) didn’t quit either, taking an early 2-1 and 3-2 lead in game two.

“They didn’t give up and got up early on the scoreboard and that was a confidence booster,” Earley added.

Unfortunately the offense stopped there, and eventually the Mustangs (7-14) poured it on offensively. They took advantage of 15 walks issued by North Montgomery pitching, and scored 15 runs on just 10 hits.

“North Montgomery didn’t quit, they’ve got a lot of young talent on that team and it’s going to be fun watching them grow up. And can’t say enough about Makinze (Rominger). She has a lot of heart and the type of leader that team needs and is doing a good job,” Walke said.

Makinze Rominger led the Chargers with two of their three hits on the night.

On the night, Kirkpatrick had 11 RBI, while Rahm had five hits. Haley Webb scored seven runs.

Fountain Central did commit five errors in the second game, something Walke hopes they clean up heading into the final week of the regular season.

“We didn’t hit well at times,” he said. “We had some mental errors, which caused some defensive errors, and that’s stuff we hadn’t been doing. We need to get back to focusing.”