Lady Trojans top Bruton 6-3 for second win in two days

New Kent center fielder Brittany LaPrade charges in to glove a sinking line drive off the bat of Bruton's Kelsey Sluss in the seventh inning.

Alan Chamberlain photo

New Kent’s Lady Trojans used a four-run third inning to move ahead for good on the way to a 6-3 softball conquest of Bruton’s visiting Panthers.

Friday’s outcome marked two wins in two days for the hosts who improved to 5-3. A day earlier, Brittany LaPrade pitched a no-hitter as the Lady Trojans won 4-0 at Lafayette.

“This makes me feel good,” said Lady Trojan coach Nicole O’Bier, pointing to her team’s performance coming off a weeklong spring break.

“I’d liked to have been a lot further ahead, but Bruton is an improving team,” she said. “We need to be hitting more. We’re hitting the ball and a lot of that is right at somebody, but eventually they’re going to fall.”

New Kent took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Stephanie Torrence’s RBI single. Bruton evened the affair in the second, but Torrence delivered two more runs with a single in the third and Bruton errors accounted for another pair as the hosts mounted a 5-1 advantage.

Bruton closed the gap to 5-3 in the fifth, thanks to a Lady Trojan throwing error enabling two runs to score. But the hosts added an insurance run after loading the bases in the home half of the fifth. A wild pitch scored Emily Angle for the game’s final run.

Lady Trojan pitcher Destiny Eberhard then allowed only two Bruton base runners, both on walks, the rest of the way. In going the distance, she scattered six hits while striking out four and walking five.