Houston turns around rough first to beat Perry

After going through a rocky beginning to the 2013 softball season at Veterans High on Aug. 13, Houston County High pitcher Emily Hittinger was looking at more of the same abuse from a county rival one week later.

But after spotting Perry High four runs Tuesday in the first inning, Hittinger tossed a brilliant shutout to set up a major comeback by the Bears offense in the home opener. Houston County in fact scored eight unanswered to knock off the visiting Panthers 8-4.

Lorne Tucker’s Perry team was on the field for the first time in a week as two games – Aug. 15 at Warner Robins and Aug. 16 at home – were rained out. Angela Crawford took the Bears to the Atlanta area last weekend for the Georgia Dugout Club tournament, and they got in three games (1-2) before other contests were cancelled due to weather.

Sabrina Doucette, Panther leadoff batter and opposing pitcher, staked Perry to its first run of Tuesday’s big inning by going deep. From there, the Panther bats set things in such motion that Crawford was making infield adjustments (two in fact) before it was all done.

Sammy Gidney drew a walk and Mattie Hamilton bunted her way on base. Both moved to scoring position on a wild pitch, and Kaley Sikes singled Perry to a 2-0 lead. A second walk filled the bases, and with one out Courtney Winston put the softball in play. Houstson’s try for a force out at home became instead a two-run throwing error.

Hittinger escaped further damage retiring the next two hitters. From that point, she was practically untouchable with no runs allowed and five hits. All of those safeties occurred in separate innings. Plus, there were no more walks or errors.

All the Bears needed then was to find some scoring, and that started with one run in the bottom of the second. Carson Carriker drew a leadoff walk and advanced on Amber Coy’s ‘swinging bunt.’ Taylor Brown’s single ended the shutout. Houston had two runners on with two outs when Winston’s scoop of a throw from third base helped Doucette return to the dugout.

Three runs for the Bears tied the game 4-4 in the third inning. It began with Autumn Ring’s infield single with one out. Hayley Tierce, just like she did the week before at Veterans, sent a softball over the fence.

With the bases empty, Carriker began a new rally with a single, and Coy followed with the more conventional sacrifice bunt. What wasn’t conventional was Carriker’s baserunning daring, which sent her towards third base on the throw to first. That drew a bad throw in her direction, and Carriker scored the tying run.

Crawford had the same batters going to the plate when Houston went ahead for good. It was the fifth inning, and Ring singled past a diving Hamilton at shortstop with one out. Tierce and Carriker made it three singles in a row, and on Carriker’s hit Ring beat a throw home for the go-ahead run (5-4).

The string of hits ended at four as Coy singled home two.

Tucker put Melissa Eckman, a junior, at pitcher. She got Perry out of the fifth, and though Shaelin Browne led off Houston’s sixth with a home run (8-4), she worked her way out of a jam.

Doucette moved to centerfield, and she ended the sixth throwing out a runner to catcher Amber Garrett completing a double play.

That wasn’t the game’s only twin-killing, the other one also taking place in the sixth. It was Carriker, Houston’s shortstop, catching a liner and doubling up Perry’s runner at first base.

Lady Panther senior Marie Smith, in the fourth inning, dove for a catch in right taking a hit away from Browne.

Two of Perry’s post-first inning hits belonged to Hamilton.

• In those Georgia Dugout Tournament games, the Bears earned their first win of 2013 as Hittinger shut out Breman High 1-0. She allowed five hits an struck out eight.

Houston bats struck out 10 times, and the lone run didn’t touch home until the seventh inning.

It took awhile for the Bears to produce any runs in the other two games, both setbacks. They were down 5-0 to Kennesaw Mountain going into the sixth inning, the final score being 5-3. Kenton Thomas doubled for an RBI, and Kelly Warner had two hits with one RBI.

Chapel Hill scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to top the Bears 10-2 in five.

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