|
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Hutchinson
Community College softball team combined for 25 hits as the Lady
Dragons rolled to a regional sweep of Brown Mackie College on
Tuesday at Fun Valley.
In cool and blustery
conditions, the Lady Dragons won their fourth straight and fifth in
six games after hammering Brown Mackie 17-1 and 11-0, both games
ending after five innings.
In Game 1, freshman
Danielle Driscoll struck out 10 and allowed just one hit, while the
HCC offense gave her plenty of run support in a 15-hit attack.
Chelsey Hargett went 3 for 4 with three RBIs, while Ashley
Cushinberry, Brianna Elman, Kelli Dennis, Dusty Smith and Shonda
Glover all had two hits each as the Lady Dragons batted around twice
in four offensive turns.
In the second game,
freshman Haley Fowler tossed the Lady Dragons’ third shutout of the
season, holding Brown Mackie to three singles. Offensively, Elman
had three hits and drove in three, while freshman Brooke Hollis hit
a grand slam home run in the fourth.
Game 1 recap
The Lions (0-10,
0-10 region) took a 1-0 lead when Driscoll walked four batters in
the first inning. She then worked out of a second-inning jam after
walking two and hitting one Brown Mackie batter.
HCC woke up, sending
15 batters to the plate in a nine-run second inning. Hargett had two
RBI singles, while Cushinberry, Elman and Jessica Glenn all had RBI
singles, Megan Meigs had a bases-loaded walk to drive in a run and
Smith had a two-run single.
HCC (14-16, 8-4
region) score two more runs in the third and six more in the fourth.
Elman had a three-run double in the fourth inning.
Elman drove in a
team-high four runs, while Hargett and Smith had three RBIs each.
Cushinberry and Elman scored three runs each.
Driscoll had 10
strikeouts, but walked seven and hit one batter. Driscoll carried a
no-hitter into the fifth inning when it was broken up by Tiffany
Wedel, who singled through the middle with one out.
GAME 1 BOXSCORE
Game 2 recap
The Lady Dragons
opened the game with five consecutive singles en route to a four-run
inning. Hutchinson then scored three runs in the third inning and
four more in the fourth.
Elman went 3 for 3
with a run scored and three RBIs, to set a career high for runs
batted in in a doubleheader with seven. Cushinberry went 2 for 3
with two runs scored and Dennis was 2 for 2 with two runs and one
RBI.
Hollis provided the
biggest blast of the day when she drove a grand slam out to left
field against a 25-30 mph wind. That gave Hutchinson an 11-0 lead.
Fowler pitched five
solid innings in getting her first career collegiate shutout. She
walked just one and allowed three singles, striking out three,
Weather permitting,
Hutchinson will play at Highland on Friday and Kansas City on
Saturday in a pair of key regional doubleheaders.
GAME 2 BOXSCORE
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Jaime
Rose
That’s our goal is
to play at home in the first round. I think we’ve been too
inconsistent. That’s something we need to work on to put us in
position to play at home. I would like to take 3 out of 4 this
weekend. I feel that we’ve yet to come out and play on a consistent
basis in all three aspects of the game. When we can put all three
things together, we can be a tough team.
Offensively, we are
getting better cuts on the ball. We are getting better pitch
selection as the season has gone on. We aren’t such free swingers
and it’s something we need to work on. I was happy out we adjusted
the slow pitching. Over the years, we’ve been bad at hitting slow
pitching.
Sophomore Jessica
Glenn
This season’s been
kind of hard coming from last year. It’s the sophomores job to keep
the team up and losing some of the sophomores who had the louder
mouths last season, I’ve struggled to try and keep the team pumped
up and to perform to their best.
The last couple of
days, the 1-2-3 hitters were getting on. Today the bottom of the
order picked things up. We have to string hits together.
Freshman Brooke
Hollis
Its’ been the story
of our season so far. I know we have the potential to come out and
put our hitting and pitching and defense all together. We have the
potential to win a lot of games.
One of our goals is
to have production through the top and bottom of our order. Today we
had that and it was nice to see.
Defensively, if we
don’t compound errors and have one bad inning, we can be good. Our
defense usually keeps us in most games. |
