Tift County holds off Houston County softball in non-region test

WARNER ROBINS — The Houston County Lady Bears (7-6) held on for a while, but they never led in their 7-4 non-region loss to Tift County (8-2) on Wednesday.

The Lady Blue Devils hit a three-run home run in the first inning and never looked back.

Three observations:

The ones that got away

Seven runs allowed doesn’t usually scream “good defensive performance,” but the Lady Bears performed pretty well behind the mound aside from a few at-bats that got away from them.

A single and a walk led to a three-run homer in the first. An error following an intentional walk in the third led to a double, a single and a 6-1 deficit for HoCo.

But outside of the first and third innings the Lady Bears shut Tift County down, and they bowed their necks in the sixth to get out of a loaded bases situation.

Eventually they’ll have to clean up those errors, according to head coach April Collins, because good teams like the Lady Blue Devils will always take advantage of those.

“They’re a good team, can’t discredit that, I knew they would be,” Collins said on Tift County. “We talked about it at the end of the game with my team, it’s like we’re doing such a great job and then [we have] maybe one or two mistakes, and we’re letting teams capitalize on those mistakes, and good teams that’s what they’re going to do.”

Through the lineup

The Lady Bears struggled to get on the board in a couple of their region games against Coffee, namely their 5-2 and 1-0 losses.

In the latter contest HoCo was 3-of-26 at the plate, and on Tuesday they were 4-of-26.

Against Tift County they were able to get ahold of the ball a little bit more, and they had players step up all throughout the lineup.

The most obvious one is Ann Marie DeFore’s two-run homer in the fifth inning, but Lily Brzezicki, Olivia Buffone, Kendall Carswell and others had timely hits, too.

“We barreled the ball tonight…We stayed in the game,” Collins said. “I was happy with our at-bats. I thought we did a good job to execute and keep us in the ball game.”

The Lady Bears put nine hits on pitcher Lily Robinson — that’s the most she’s given up in a start this season.

Freshmen on the mound

Although HoCo has shown they’re able to be immediately competitive, much of their roster is aimed at the future. Especially with freshmen pitchers Allie Hutto and Piper Lambert.

Lambert started against Tift County and struck out two batters while giving up three earned runs. A ball hit her knee in the fourth inning and Hutto came in, striking out four batters and giving up no earned runs.

Junior Kamille Evans will be back next year, too. Her last start was a 4-1 win over Coffee with six strikeouts and one earned run given up.

“My pitchers have been great,” Collins said. “They’re doing what they’re supposed to do to keep their team in the ball games. I’m very proud of how well they’re doing. I think they’re gonna help us carry on into [the] postseason and more region games as well…They’re being swaggy, they’re doing what they need to be. Now we just got to play good defense behind them.”

UP NEXT

HoCo will play Colquitt County on Friday, Sept. 5 at 4 p.m. as a part of the Harris County Invitational.

Tift County will travel to Richmond Hill on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 4 p.m.