In their second game in as many days, the McCracken County Lady Mustangs got up to a 2-0 record on their young season after defeating Maddisonville-North Hopkins 4-1 Tuesday night.
What was as slow start that saw the home team behind the eight-ball early by a run, turned into dominant performance in the bottom of the sixth to get the job done. The slow start wasn’t a huge surprise for McCracken County coach Tony Hayden as his team is filled with athletes who are seeing their bit of action as high school athletes, but is impressed with how they stuck with it.
“With this group, we are going to start slow,” Hayden said. “That’s just the way they are going to play. Every one of them are trying to feel their way. We are playing 13, 14, 15 kids and every one of them is going to have to do their part. A lot of them played their first high school game this week.
“But this game right here, I was really please with how we settled down, got the bat on the ball and turned up the speed around the bases.”
The first run for the Lady Maroons came in the top of the first when Mackenzie Stoltz knocked one out of the park on a full count to go up 1-0. A pair of strikeouts followed courtesy of Addley Leidecker to mitigate any further damage.
McCracken wouldn’t answer until the bottom of the second when Ava Knight connected for a ground ball single followed by another single courtesy of Olivia Lee. Knight would knot the score 1-1 on a passed ball, having made aggressive moves around the path with McKenzie OBrien at the plate.
Both teams would go dormant scoring-wise as the Lady Maroon defense kept their gloves open in the outfield, while Leidecker handed out her fair share of strikeouts with her supporting staff picking up the rest.
Scoring action would resume in the bottom of the sixth when Kinley Dowdy connected for a bunt to first. Quick reflexes found her stealing second and advancing to third on a wild pitch and put the cap on the play by finding home on a passed ball at home plate, sliding in the 2-1 score.
Momentum picked up from there when Savannah McDowell connected for a line drive double, Ava Knight followed with a pop fly, reaching on an error and Skylar Clark scored on behalf of McDowell on a wild pitch with Knight hot on her tail on a ground out from Lee for the 4-1 lead.
“We needed to be patient at the plate,” Hayden said. “She (Sadie Kirk) was wild and throws hard and started chasing her rise ball. With runners on base, we have to move the ball because we have enough speed to pressure the defense and that’s all we had to do.”
A motivated defense stepped up in the top of the seventh, the last chance the Lady Maroons had to even the score, but a fly out, pop out and ground out got the job done to close out the game 4-1.
With Wednesday night off, the Lady Mustangs will take that as the only day of rest in the first week of the season. They will get back at it on Thursday night at Trigg County before taking on Marshall County on Friday and playing in a tournament in Illinois on Saturday. Coach Hayden planned the season this way, not only to be prepared for the potential busy postseason, but also to get his girls used to playing early.
“With this group I had to do it,” Hayden said. “We are playing six games this week. We don’t need to practice, we need to play. We need to get them out on the field and see all the good teams that we are going to play.”
Game stats
McCracken County 4, Madisonville-North Hopkins 1
MDSN 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 1 3
MCCR 0 1 0 0 0 3 X — 4 7 0
2B: MC — A. Knight, S. McDowell
HR: MAD — M. Stoltz
TB: MC — A. Knight 3, M. OBrien 2, S. McDowell 2, K. Dowdy 1, O. Lee 1; MAD — M. Stoltz 4
SB: MC — K. Dowdy; MAD — M. Stoltz
E: MAD — M. Stoltz 2, M. Killough
RECORDS: McCracken County (2-0); Madisonville-North Hopkins (0-2)