Lady Warhawks fall prey to undefeated Lady Panthers

PERRY, Ga. — It was close for about an inning-and-a-half, but the red-hot Perry Lady Panthers took down the Veterans Lady Warhawks in their softball matchup on Monday.

The Lady Panthers improved to 8-0 on the season behind their 12-3 win over the Lady ‘Hawks, who fell to 4-4 on the season.

The Lady ‘Hawks are fielding an extremely young team this year, who don’t always play green, but there were some moments of that against the Lady Panthers.

It started in the first inning with a diving infield catch that just missed the mark to put Chloe Davey on base right before Kamryn Fielder hit a ball to right field that just missed the fielder, allowing a RBI triple.

Anna Dean followed with a RBI single and Lucy Layson brought her home on another RBI triple to put the Lady Panthers up 3-0.

There were plays like that sprinkled throughout the game, and Lady ‘Hawks head coach Jeff Sans thinks those will improve over the course of the season.

“I think tonight, offensively, we hit the ball really well. Defensively, mentally, we weren’t all in the game. That’s not like us,” Sans said. “I think a lot of those plays, not every one because [Perry] did a good job hitting the ball and putting the ball in play, but some of those plays will be made in the course of the season.”

The Lady ‘Hawks did do a good job of hitting the ball, but unfortunately some of those were straight to Lady Panthers fielders. Even the ones that weren’t still zipped to their destination with a phenomenal fielding effort from the Lady Panthers, and the Lady ‘Hawks just couldn’t get much going.

The Lady ‘Hawks did manage to get on the board in the second inning when freshman Callie Tremor hit a RBI double.

Junior Keniece Kirksey followed that up with a two-RBI ball to the left field gap to tie the game at three, but she was caught trying to steal second and that ended the inning.

From there the Lady ‘Hawks couldn’t get much more going and went three up three down in the final three innings before the mercy rule.

As for what they can do to help the offense along? Hit the ball, according to Sans.

“You hit the ball,” Sans chuckled. “We scored three in that inning because we hit the ball with two outs. We had about five or six seeds hit right at people, that’s just the game.”

The Lady ‘Hawks allowed six runs in the second and three more in the third, and that was enough for the mercy rule in the fifth inning.

Sans knew how tough the Lady Panthers were as an opponent, but his message coming in to the game was the same as any other: Focus on your game and improve.

“It’s the same as what it’s been all year — we’ve got a bunch of freshman and a bunch of sophomores starting,” Sans said. “They’re pretty freaking good now, but they’re growing up a little bit. Just play our game. Play it hard, play it fast and play to win and see what happens.”

To finish out the week, the Lady ‘Hawks host a doubleheader against Lee County on Thursday, Aug. 31 starting at 5 p.m.

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