Lady Trojans cruise to first round regional win

New Kent hurler Gracie Ellis commands the mound as she struck out eight in Friday's contest.

Robb Johnson photo

The path to a championship sometimes come with bumps in the road. For New Kent’s Lady Trojans, it wasn’t the Lakeland Lady Cavaliers.

Behind eight strikeouts by Lady Trojan hurler Gracie Ellis, New Kent cruised to a 9-0 win over the visiting Lady Cavaliers.

Confidence emerged early in the game thanks to patience at the plate. Smart softball plays along with putting runners on base allowed for runs to cross home plate for the hosts. Meanwhile, Lakeland only connected off Ellis twice in the contest, making the defense’s job easy for most of the game.

After the contest, Lady Trojan head coach Maria Bates talked about giving her team the right mindset for the playoffs.

“This is the postseason; it’s win or go home and we want to make a run and that is our only mindset right now,” she said. “We have a tough game on Monday with two teams who pitch well.”

That contest Monday (May 29), is a matchup against Southampton, another team that has only has two losses on the season.

“We will see where things stand after it’s said and done on Monday,” Bates concluded.