XENIA — Yellow Springs pitcher Hannah Morrison had another strong outing on the mound, but Legacy Christian’s first-year team wouldn’t be run-ruled, in the visiting Bulldogs’ 10-1 win over the Knights at the Athletes In Action Sports Complex.
Morrison recorded 18 strikeouts in a 7-3 home win over Legacy Christian back on April 4. This time around, the senior righthander fanned 13 Knights.
“She’s really on her game this year,” Yellow Springs coach Jim DeLong said. “She’s averaging two strikeouts per inning so far this season. The pitcher and the catcher (Danny Horton) are both four-year starters. They both do a great job together.”
Yellow Springs (3-5, 2-0 Metro Buckeye Conference) scored twice in the first inning, then added five runs in the the second to jump out in front 7-0 after two innings of play.
Morrison struckout the first four Knights batters she faced. But the first-year Legacy Christian team began to adjust to Morrison’s speed after that.
Victoria Howarah broke up any thoughts of a no-hitter in the third inning, when she hustled for an infield single. Hannah Barber singled to left in the fourth inning, but was stranded on base. Then, Howarah had another infield single in the fifth. This time, she scored on Alexis Estes’ groundout to Morrison.
“We were making a lot more contact against (Morrison) tonight, so I’m really proud of that. Unless you’re constantly at a batting cage, it’s just really hard to hit off a pitcher like that,” LCA coach Hannah Zickgraf said. “Victoria had a good game for us at the plate. She also made a lot of good throws from third to first today. She was definitely our player of the game.”
Morrison led Yellow Springs in hitting as well. She singled, doubled and tripled in five plate appearances, and scored twice. Bulldogs lead-off hitter Kadie Lafferty had a three-RBI triple. She also beat out a throw to first on a called third strike, and another Yellow Springs run scored on that play.
Gracie Price had a double and a triple while driving in two runs and scoring two others. The rangy first baseman was bowled over at first base by Howarah in the fifth inning, but stayed in the game. Kallyn Buckenmyer went 2-for-2 at the plate, while Lauryn DeWine, Elly Kumbusky an Brielle Willis also had hits in the win.
The Bulldogs tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth to go up 9-0, but LCA’s Howarth scored in the sixth. Yellow Springs scored its final run in the sixth, and had the potential game-ending run on third with two outs, but LCA reliever Meriya Angel struckout the next batter to end the threat.
Zickgraf was quick to credit starter Anne Kensinger and Angel with solid pitching. The two shortstops combined to strikeout seven Yellow Springs batters in the loss. “… And Hannah Barber played a great game behind the plate. She’s never played softball before, and she definitely does a nice job for us. It’s appreciated,” Zickgraf said.
Despite being a first-year program, the Knights (0-4, 0-2 MBC) have only been run-ruled once this season.
Legacy Christian has some time off before its next game: The Knights won’t play again until April 20 when they’ll get back into Metro Buckeye Conference action with a home contest with Middletown Christian. Yellow Springs has a day to rest before heading over to Oakwood to take on the Jills for a 2 p.m. non-league game on Saturday, April 15.
