New Kent 5 Lafayette 0 (softball)

Becca Mills tossed a two-hitter and New Kent’s offense gradually pulled away as the host Lady Trojans blanked Lafayette’s visiting Rams 5-0.

The hosts took the lead for good in the third inning on the way to an April 23 outcome that upped New Kent’s Bay Rivers District softball record to 9-3.

“We left too many runners on base [nine], but we had good at-bats,” said Lady Trojan coach Betsey Lane.

“We were able to work the count and work pitches,” she said. “We didn’t swing at any bad pitches, and overall, it was a good hitting day for us.”

New Kent left the bases loaded in the first inning and stranded another in the second before breaking through against Ram hurler Jenny Carroll in the third.

With one away, Ashley McMichael lined a single to right field, just beyond the glove of second baseman Kelly Morris. Carroll then walked Laura Bauer and gave up an infield single behind third base to Mills, loading the bases. After getting the second out, Carroll walked Nikki Jones, forcing in McMichael for a 1-0 lead.

In the New Kent fourth, Rachel Baldwin led off with a single, reached third on an error, and scored on Maria Bates’ single. The hosts made it 3-0 in the fifth as Bauer singled and scored on a Jones hit. New Kent tacked on its final two runs in the sixth as Dana Tompkins scored on McMichael’s ground out and Tyler Fleming raced home on a single by Bauer.

The defensive play of the game ended the contest in the Ram seventh when Carroll drove a two-out double to the fence in right field. Carroll tried to stretch the hit into a triple, but the relay from Chelsea Bedwell in right to Fleming at the cutoff spot to Kayla Timberlake at third gunned down the Ram runner.

“Bedwell to Fleming to Timberlake. That’s something we’ve practiced for so long,” Lane said. “Now we know it works.”