Calhoun tops LFO at home
The Calhoun Lady Jackets remain undefeated in region play as they took down Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, 4-1, at Calhoun High School on Thursday.
“It was a game we needed to win, particularly after we got beat ... by Rockmart,” Lady Jackets head coach Diane Smith said. “We left a lot of runners on base and that’s something we’ve got to work on, getting those runner in, but it’s a win and we’ll take it.”
Sophomore Molly Banks’ two RBIs and junior Maggie McBrayer’s pitching would be all the Lady Jackets would need to earn their 11th victory of 2019.
McBrayer pitched all seven innings, collecting 12 strikeouts in the process. She surrendered just two hits, four walks and one unearned run.
“She did a really great job with her pitch selection tonight,” Smith said. “I was very pleased with her performance.”
Offense-wise, the Lady Jackets were held off the scoreboard for the first three innings of the game, despite having a bases loaded situation in the second.
Banks got the spark the bats needed, leading off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run over the center field wall to tie the game.
Smith said she thought the home run was the turning point in the game.
“That at least tied it up and got us going,” Smith said. “Prior to that, we had left runners on. We’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball down and moving those runners around.”
Calhoun would leave the bases loaded twice against LFO, and stranded a total of 10 runners on base.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Calhoun broke the deadlock as senior Erin Barnes singled home junior Hannah Mashburn. Two batters later, Banks came through again, this time with an RBI single, extending the lead to 3-1.
“It seems like ... lately though, we don’t start producing runs until the latter half of the game,” Smith said. “We need to jump on teams early. That’s one thing we told them first of the season is we need to score early and put the pressure on the other team.”
Up Next
After facing Gordon Lee High School on Monday, the Lady Jackets return to regional competition, with games at Adairsville and at Ringgold on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.