Veterans’ offense piles it on to end season series against Perry

KATHLEEN — Veterans’ offense has scored seven or more runs 11 times this season, and they added Thursday’s non-region contest against Perry to the list with a 13-5 win in six innings.

The Lady Warhawks (14-1) won both of their games this week in a break from region play. The Lady Panthers continued their skid, but came away with a couple of positives.

Three observations:

Offense just can’t be stopped

There haven’t been many teams that can hold this Veterans offense back, and you can count on one hand how many times they’ve been held under seven runs in their 15 games this season.

The Lady ‘Hawks batted .545 as a team and six players finished with at least two hits against Perry. Maddy Kinkade was a perfect 4-of-4 and highlighted the win with a solo jack in the third inning to tie the game at four.

“I think we’re swinging the bat real well,” Veterans head coach Jeff Sans said. “With two strikes we’re doing exceptionally well. They just battle and battle and find a way to either put it in play or get hits. Not a whole lot of strikeouts. When you put it in play in high school you’re gonna do good things.”

Things were jumping out of the gate as Veterans put the ball in play in all seven of their at-bats. Although some of those were helped by some fielding miscues, they didn’t strike out one time.

In fact, in the whole three-game series against Thomas County Central the Lady ‘Hawks only struck out five times. Four of those came in one game.

The Lady Panthers did regroup after a rough defensive first inning and hold Veterans to one run in the next two innings, but in the fourth and sixth innings the spark reignited as the Lady ‘Hawks scored three and six runs respectively. That pushed their final score into the double digits for the third time in a row and the fourth time this season.

Getting the defense together

Both teams combined for 18 runs on Thursday, and not all of that was strictly because of good offense.

Both offenses had their moments. Perry was fairly consistent moving runners in the early innings and at least getting one home; They scored in the first three innings before being held to one in the final three combined.

The defenses played their part in that. Letting balls drop in the outfield, getting to bags late or being out of position are some of the shortcomings. For Veterans, defensive consistency is one of the few issues they have.

Missing Rayven Hodridge’s speed in the outfield certainly doesn’t help.

“We had a lot of girls out of place because [Rayven Hodridge is] hurt. But there was a couple times where we were out of place and got to bags late. So those are the things we gotta work on. Just not spectating, being on time when we’re supposed to be there,” Sans said.

Recognizing improvement

It’s easy to look at the Lady Panthers’ 2-7 record and four-game losing streak and feel down about the season.

They have had some tough games, especially defensively, but they look better than they did to start the season.

In the four games they’ve let up double digit runs, their opponents have a combined 38-4 record (Veterans, East Coweta, Harris County).

Outside of that they have some close losses to West Laurens and two big margins of victory against Taylor County and Schley County.

In their first four games (including a preseason scrimmage) Perry had 22 errors.

They did have five against Veterans, but they regrouped after a tough first inning and made some changes in the lineup.

Freshman Abagail Nails took over at third base in the opening side and made a couple of nice grabs, and Rachel Driver reached a full split more than once to corral a ball at first base.

They’ve also yet to start region play where the race is wide open.

UP NEXT

Veterans will hit the region slate again next week on Tuesday, Sept. 9 on the road against Lee County at 5 p.m.

Perry will play their first region game on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at home against Ware County at 4:30 p.m.