When softballs are hit on the ground time and again, a good defensive infield will make the play … most of the time. It’s those few times when the bounce is a bit difficult you hope it doesn’t come back to hurt you.
The Houston County High infield had about 12 chances on grounders in Tuesday’s major Region 2-AAAAA sub-region contest with Jones County High. The Greyhounds, in one inning, put three softballs on the ground, loaded the bases and scored the decisive run of a 2-1 victory.
With the win, Jones swept the two-game regular-season series with Houston and clinched first place in the B sub-region. The Bears still have one sub-region game left on Oct. 1 against Warner Robins before a best-of-3 2-AAAAA playoff series against a club from the A sub-region (based in Columbia County) on Oct. 5.
Emily Hittinger induced all of those grounders off the Jones bats in seven full innings working the pitcher’s circle. She recorded one strikeout, did not issue a walk, and for the entire game Hittinger stranded 10 Greyhound runners on base.
Jones County, who won for the 20th time in 2013, got on the scoreboard in the first inning when leadoff hitter Jazmine Washington had one of those two-strike at-bats with multiple foul balls. She won the battle with a single to left.
Bree Comer began a three-hit day chopping a single past third base. Kylie Bass, the opposing pitcher, could not advance the runners due to her popped-up bunt. Houston, however, loaded the bases for the visitors with a fielding error, and McKenzie Barnes brought in the run with a sacrifice fly.
The out was a good running catch towards foul ground by Amber Coy in left field. The other two Jones players were left on base.
Third baseman Hayley Tierce had five assists and two putouts. She played a bunt by Washington for the first out of a scoreless third inning, and Tierce made a great stab against the leadoff batter in the sixth for the final out (a runner standing on third at the time).
Shortstop Carson Carriker also had five assists with a series of back-handed stops and strong throws.
Facing the left-handed throwing Bass, the Bears had two hits through the first three innings (Tierce and Shaelin Browne).
The score was still 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Tierce singled for the second time and took second base on an error. She was left stranded on third base.
It was in the top of the fifth that Jones pushed across the key insurance run for 2-0. With one out, both Washington and Comer hit choppers that ‘ate up’ the Houston infield with no plays possible on either batter. Bass hit a ball up the middle stopped by second baseman Keaton Thomas, but again with no play to make the bags were full.
Autumn Ring, in right field, ran down a fly ball by Kaitlin Stokes, but Washington would sprint home with her second run. This turn for Jones ended with the bases loaded.
Hittinger drilled the hardest hit of any player in the game on a first-pitch fifth-inning leadoff double. The Bears again had the runner on third with one out, and this one scored when a grounder hit by Kelly Warner ‘ate up’ the first baseman.
Taylor Brown, with two outs in the home sixth, reached on an infield single. Jones shortstop Madison Cavender then robbed Thomas of a hit, instead making it an inning-ending force out.
Jones continued to threaten offensively in the seventh on back-to-back hits by Comer and Bass. Hittinger fanned Stokes as the first of three outs in a row, and that put the LOB total to 10.
Bass, in her complete game, struck out five.
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