Lady Pioneers open field with 6-5 victory
Saturday the WCHS Lady Pioneer softball team broke in its new on-campus field in style, capturing a 6-5 win over Franklin County.
FCHS scored first, with two hits and some home-opener jitters from the Lady Pioneers in the form of two errors which gave FCHS one run in the first.
Brittany Patterson dropped a bunt down the third base line for the Lady Pioneers first hit on their new field, and the Pioneers had runners on first and second when Tara Woods hit a single to right to score Patterson and Crystal Jones.
Cassie McGinness and Vanessa Cornelius both reached with base hits, before Erica Warren slapped a single to right with two outs to score McGinness and Cornelius and give the Lady Pioneers a 4-1 lead after one inning of play.
Franklin County added three runs in the second on three hits and a walk to tie the game 4-4. WCHS answered with hits from Woods and Cornelius, however, and Cornelius scored off a wild throw to third to give the Lady Pioneers back the lead.
WCHS added one more run in the inning off a hit from Jasmine Ware to take a 6-4 advantage.
Franklin County tried to rally in the fifth, loading the bases with three base hits with two outs. An error proved to be costly for the Lady Pioneers and gave FCHS one run, but the defense stepped up and shut FCHS down. WCHS put two runners on in its half of the inning, but left the runners stranded.
FCHS would not go away and put two runners on in the sixth with two base hits. Once again good pitching from Warren and solid defense shut FCHS down.
WCHS shut Franklin County down in order in the seventh and the team and fans celebrated the first win at the on-campus field.
Franklin County picked up eight hits and had four errors in the game.
The Lady Pioneers connected for 11 hits with eight errors. Warren struck out four and walked four. Jones was 1-for-2, Ware, Patterson and Warren went 1-for-3,McGinness and Woods went 2-for-3 and Cornelius was perfect from the plate, going 3-for-3.