Lady Trojans use sixth inning flurry to topple York in Bay Rivers action

New Kent’s Hannah Perkins (22) fights off an inside pitch that resulted into a triple that sparked a Lady Trojans rally in the sixth inning.

Robb Johnson photo

When you’re the defending state champions, every opponent is going to give you that best shot. And for New Kent’s Lady Trojans, a Mar. 22 home contest against York endangered a 15-game home winning streak.

But on a day that saw Senior Morgan Berg notch her 100th career strikeout, New Kent overcame a three-run deficit and rallied to defeat the visiting Lady Falcons 8-4.

The hosts found themselves in a position that they haven’t been in for a very long time as they trailed York for a majority of the contest. Behind 3-0, it wouldn’t be until the bottom of the fifth inning when New Kent started piecing things together.

Hannah Tolbert’s RBI double drove in the first run of the game for the hosts. Berg stepped to the plate, using a sacrifice fly to drive in Berg to cut York’s lead to one (3-2).

York countered in the top of the sixth inning, adding one run to double-up the hosts. But in the bottom of that frame, Hannah Perkins triple sparked a Lady Trojan rally.

Leah Rounds walked and Libby Britt’s triple drove home Perkins and Britt to tie the game at four. Moments later, Rounds found herself touching the plate as Cassidy Branch’s double provided New Kent their first lead of the game (5-4).

The scoring continued, with RBIs contributed by Mariah Leonard, Kennedy Ziglar, and Perkins, who had batted around in the inning. The end result was New Kent posting an 8-4 lead, an advantage they held until the conclusion of the contest.

After the game, New Kent Lady Trojans Head Coach Maria Bates talked about her team taking on the challenge of falling behind in the game.

“Our key word was respond,” she commented. “They got a few early runs and we needed to respond.

“This was the spark that we needed, and it was some adversity that opened them up and got us going,” Bates concluded.

New Kent remains undefeated with a record of 3-0.