There are quite a few new names and faces in the lineup for Baylor’s softball team this spring, but the Lady Red Raiders are the two-time Division II state champs, so it’s more a case of reloading than rebuilding.
It’s still early in the season and there’s a lot of key games coming up, but the Lady Raiders are clicking on all cylinders at this point and are now 8-0 following Wednesday’s 11-1 win over the Marion County Lady Warriors.
Baylor has more than its share of outstanding hitters and they are much better than average when you look at overall team speed. Throw in a group of hungry and talented young ladies and you quickly see the nightmare other coaches feel when preparing to play them.
The Lady Warriors advanced to the state tournament last spring, but like Baylor, they graduated some key players. No doubt Marion County will be right in the thick of things in a couple of months, but they aren’t there yet.
Freshman Macy Ann McKnight is now the go-to pitcher for Baylor as she replaces a graduated Kayla Hughes. She’s gaining more and more experience every time out and she was more than good enough to get the win on Wednesday in Baylor’s first home game of the season.
The Lady Warriors had base runners in every inning except the fourth when McKnight retired the side in order for the only time in the game, but key hits were hard to come by as the freshman was able to escape every jam without giving up any runs until the fifth.
Baylor’s bats came out swinging from the start as the Lady Red Raiders scored four in the first, one in the second and five more in the third. Neither team scored in the fourth before the Lady Warriors scored their only run in the top of the fifth to avoid being run-ruled, but Baylor came right back to win with an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth.
“It was good to finally play a home game and getting four runs in our first time at-bat was nice,” said Baylor coach Kelli Smith after her team had rolled to its eighth-straight win.
“Even some of our outs were productive at-bats as we had two sacrifice flies and one groundout that drove in a run, but we ran the bases extremely well. Macy Ann pitched pretty well today and two of their best players had four of their five hits.
“The good news is that we made plays behind her. We work our tails off on defense every day at practice because that’s where you win close games,” Smith smiled.
Randy Ellis, the spirited Marion County coach, could only shake his head at the number of missed opportunities his team had during the game.
“We’re young and not playing very well right now, but I’m confident we’ll get there eventually,” he began after his team dropped to 2-6 for the season.
“We didn’t get any timely hits and we just didn’t make the plays defensively when we needed to. We had lots of opportunities, but our hitting wasn’t what it should have been today and that’s really frustrating,” he added.
Leadoff hitter Cheyenne Lindsey, who is now at shortstop after playing third the last couple of years, set the pace with three hits in four at-bats. She also scored three runs.
Abby McNamara, Ashton Bazzell and Makayla Packer all had two hits for Baylor as they finished with a dozen for the game.
Kamrie Rich only had one hit, but she drove in a run in each of the first three innings, including one in the first on a groundout and another in the second on a sac fly to left.
Breanna Vinson and Savannah Thomas both had two hits for the Lady Warriors while Hailey Hamilton beat out an infield single in the second for Marion’s fifth hit.
Vinson reached on a one-out single in the fifth and scored on a two-out double into the left-field corner by Thomas, but McKnight avoided any further trouble by inducing Chloe Campbell into a groundout to end the inning.
Campbell had pitched the first two innings for Marion before Vinson came in to pitch the third.
Bailey Davis was the third hurler for the Lady Warriors and actually had the best success as she retired the first five hitters she faced before Lindsey reached on a sharp single to right.
McNamara reached on a Marion error before Rich walked to load the bases with two outs.
McKnight then hit a towering pop right in front of the plate that couldn’t be handled as Lindsey raced home with the decisive run.
McKnight was the winning pitcher after allowing the one run on five hits. She walked two and struck out two.
Campbell was tagged with the loss after allowing those five runs on six hits. She had no walks and no strikeouts while hitting one.
MARION CO. 000 01 – 1 5 2
BAYLOR 415 01 – 11 12 0
Campbell, Vinson (3), Davis (4) and Thomas; McKnight and Rich.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)