It’s been a rough past few days for the Central Lady Purple Pounder softball team.
They got shutout in two games on Saturday in the Choo Choo Lady Canes tournament at the Summit and things didn’t get much better at home on Tuesday against the GPS Bruisers.
Scoring at least two runs in four of the five innings, the Bruisers collected 13 hits as they crushed Central by a 12-1 final.
GPS improves to 17-10 with the non-district win while Central is now 14-10.
Central outfielders dropped fly balls twice in the first inning as the Bruisers turned those miscues into a 4-0 lead.
Hannah Sanders had a two-run double following a run-scoring single by Sydney White after the first run scored on an error.
Hannah Kincer’s three-run homer in the second extended the difference to 7-0 while a two-run triple by Kaitlyn Songer in the third made it 9-0.
Central avoided a shutout when hard-hitting Alexis Grampp ripped a two-out, opposite-field homer in the fourth, but the Bruisers ended the game in the next inning when Haley Smith’s RBI-single preceded another homer from Kincer, this time a two-run blast.
“We came out and got going early, but they helped us a little in that first inning,” said GPS coach Susan Crownover following the game.
“We’ll take Hannah Kincer like that every day as she had a big game. But I thought we were focused and ready to play. I was proud of our defense as Sydney White did a great job at third and we even turned a double play,” the veteran coach smiled.
Kincer, a slender 15-year-old sophomore who will be 16 on May 19, now has nine homers for the season, but Tuesday was the first time she’s had more than one in the same game.
She was also impressive as the winning pitcher as she allowed the one run on three hits while walking one and striking out two.
“I thought we played a great game as we just wanted to stay positive and have a good time,” she explained.
“I had a lot of confidence as I had beaten them on Saturday, but I felt like I kept my focus, even when we had the big lead,” she added.
Central coach LeeAnne Shurette wasn’t the happiest person when this one ended, but she knows as well as anybody that her team is capable of playing much better than they’ve been in these last few days.
“We had some good licks, but the Kincer girl is a very good pitcher and we just didn’t drive anybody in with runners on base,” Shurette began.
“I don’t think we wanted it as much as GPS did, but we play teams like this to get ready for the post-season. We gave them way too many outs in the first inning and that basically set the tone for the entire game.
“I hate losses, but I just hope we learned something from this one. I didn’t think Lexie pitched that bad, but we didn’t do anything to help her,” the Central coach added.
Grampp scored Central’s only run with the homer in the fourth while the only other hits off Kincer came from Brooke Parrott on an infield bouncer in the first and a two-out double by Emma Beach in the fifth. She was stranded on second as Tate Morgan took a called third strike to end the game.
Leadoff hitter Lilly Berger reached on an error, walked and had two singles and scored four times for the Bruisers. She was joined by teammates Smith, Songer, Kincer and White with two hits each.
The road doesn’t get any easier for Central as they will be at home on Thursday to host defending D-II state champ Baylor while GPS will be on the road to Nashville for Saturday games with Ensworth and Brentwood Academy.
GPS 432 03 – 12 13 0
CENTRAL 000 10 – 1 3 2
Kincer and Smith; Ainslie and Benedict.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)