Neal Wachob • Clay County Progress Ace pitcher Micalynn McClure winds up to deliver.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Hayesville High School’s softballers entered the Smoky Mountain Conference portion of the schedule with a 0-2 record, a roster that includes six freshmen and optimism.
The season is young, but Lady Yellow Jackets Coach Marissa Peck is already seeing improvement.
“Overall, if this was the last game of the season I would be very upset, but I feel like we do have some places where we can grow and I’m excited to go into conference,” Peck said after Hayesville fell to visiting Copper Basin, 14-4, in five innings Monday.
Her excitement is justified as Hayesville begins SMC play this week — at Robbinsville Tuesday and at home against the Black Knights Friday.
The Lady Jackets led Copper Basin, 3-2 after two innings and 4-3 after three.
“I was pleased with some of our at bats,” Peck said. “I’m pleased with some of the things that we’re seeing. We’re throwing runners out that are stealing bases, so that’s looking good and we’ve gotten some outs at home, which has saved us some runs.”
Copper Basin regained the lead by plating three runs in the fourth after relief pitcher Caroline Wade retired two of the first three batters.
What I’m not liking is our two-out defense where we need to get dirty for some balls and we’re not. This one inning, we allowed three runs to score when we had two outs, some of those might have been knocked down in the infield if someone had gotten a little dirty.”
That put Hayesville in a 6-4 hole, but the Lady Jackets were still in the game until Copper Basin exploded for eight runs in a messy fifth inning in which the hosts committed two errors and wild pitched a runner into scoring position.
“We’re still going to continue to work and be prepared as much as we can,” Peck stated. “I did like some of the at bats that we had, we did put the bat on the ball. We left some base runners stranded, we still need to cut down on some of the strikeouts but we’re super young and we’ve got young pitching and we’ve got young people in pretty key positions.”
Micalynn McClure led Hayesville with a 2-for-2 day at the plate that included a pair of doubles, two RBIs, a steal, a run, and a walk. A starting pitcher, she scattered three hits in three innings and exited the mound with a 4-3 lead.
Wade cracked two singles in three at bats, knocked in a run, scored a run and stole a base.
On defense, Lillie McClure had six assists, a putout and no errors on seven total chances.
Copper Basin 201-38 = 14
Hayesville 121-00 = 4
Hits: McClure, two; Wade, two; Bauer, one and Murray, one.
RBIs: McClure, two; Anderson, one and Wade, one.
Runs: Bauer, McClure, Murray and Wade, one apiece.
Doubles: McClure, two.
Stolen bases: McClure and Wade, one apiece.
Pisgah 16, Hayesville 0
Micalynn McClure and Lucy Trout had Hayesville’s only hits, one apiece.
McClure and Trout also had their team’s only stolen bases, one apiece.
Hayesville only made one error, but Pisgah didn’t need much help. The Bears smacked 10 hits, including four for extra bases.
Pisgah 400-12 = 16
Hayesville 000-0 = 0