Lady Trojans christen new field with win

New Kent’s Lady Trojans opened play on the school’s new softball field with a 9-0 victory over Southampton’s Indians. But last Thursday’s triumph wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

After leaving the bases loaded in both the first and second innings and stranding another runner in the third, the hosts finally broke through with a five-run fourth inning before adding four more scores in the fifth.

“If we’d lost, we probably would have been going back to play on the old field,” Lady Trojan coach Betsey Lane said afterward, wryly assessing her team’s inaugural outing on the new layout.

New Kent managed just one hit while filling the sacks in the first two frames. Four walks and an error helped accomplish the task. The lone hit, and first tagged in the new complex, came from Tyler Fleming whose looping single barely cleared the infield and was nearly caught by the Indians’ Megan Revelle diving in from center field.

But in both frames, two were out before the bases were loaded. In the first, shortstop Paige Cifers knocked down Kayla Timberlake’s line drive and recovered in time to throw out Timberlake to end the threat.

Then in the second and again with two away, Ashley McMichael drove a Jamie Young pitch deep into the left field corner, but Carla Matthews made a one-handed grab to preserve the shutout.

“We weren’t getting our usual timely hits, and their left fielder made a great catch,” Lane said.

In the New Kent fourth, Rachel Baldwin drew a leadoff walk and stopped at second as Fleming popped a one-out single just past a diving Cifers at short. Then with two away, McMichael stroked a shot back through the mound that caromed off Young’s glove and into center field for a two-run single.

Young walked Laura Bauer, putting two aboard for Becca Mills who tripled to the fence in left-center, driving in two more runs. Mills made it 5-0, scoring on Timberlake’s bouncing single up the middle.

McMichael cracked a two-run single and Nikki Jones singled in another run during the four-run fifth. The hosts took advantage of a hit batter and four more walks.

Afterward, Lane said the biggest adjustment for her team on the new field was her defense dealing with the sun.

“The sun was very crucial,” she said. “We always had our backs to the sun at the old field.”

But someone who had few problems was Mills who pitched a two-hitter while striking out 14 and walking only two. She had a no-hitter going in the fourth inning before the Indians’ Brandi Hunt dropped a one-out single behind second base.

The outcome upped New Kent’s Bay Rivers District record to 7-3.