Pirates escape jam to top Panthers
Published 1:49 pm Wednesday, September 18, 2019
HANNIBAL – Sydney Hart is put at the top of the Hannibal softball team’s batting order to score runs.
She didn’t disappoint Tuesday night.
Hart led off the game with a single and the Pirates played small ball to get her home for the first run of the game. Avery Lake scored another run in the inning, and it was all Hannibal needed in a 2-1 victory over Monroe City at Veterans Field.
“My main goal is just to get on base so the rest of the lineup can do what they do,” Hart said. “It definitely sets the tone for the rest of the game.”
It gave pitcher Kylie McAfee a cushion, too.
McAfee limited a potent Monroe City offense to just seven hits, and the lone run came on an error in the top of the fourth inning. She worked around two-on and two-out jams in the final two frames. That included the seventh inning when the Panthers’ Lauren Youngblood hit a two-out single, and reached second on a fielder’s choice on a grounder hit by Riley Quinn.
McAfee got Carly Youngblood to pop out to shallow left to end the game.
“When she’s hitting her spots, she’s better than what the stats show,” Hannibal coach Andrew Pollard said. “If she’s in the middle of the plate that’s when she gets hit. Monroe City had a lot of opportunities, and we kept calm and made plays when we had to. That was a team win, and that’s what kept us in the game.”
Quinn was just as effective in the circle as she allowed just four hits while striking out five and walking two. Hannibal only had more than one baserunner in one inning after the first.
It was that first inning that was costly.
“We just need to be focused from the beginning,” Monroe City coach Melissa Chinn said. “Riley pitched a heck of a game, but we just need to play better defense and give her more run support.”
Chinn knows Monroe City is capable of doing so.
“That’s the frustrating part,” Chinn said. “We’re 100 percent capable. We hit right to them. We jut need one of those innings where we blow it open.”
Hart had two of the Pirates’ four hits.
Lauren Youngblood had three hits for the Panthers, while Madison Moss had two.
