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Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Hayesville second baseman Raylyn Taylor, No. 11, catches a pop-up on the run near the fi rst base foul line. -
Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Hayesville's Macie Wagner, No. 6, relays a throw to catcher Faith Odell, No. 4, in hopes of cutting down a Cherokee Brave.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
The turnaround appears to be underway.
Hayesville’s resilient girls softball team was determined to end a four-game losing streak Tuesday. The Lady Yellow Jackets just might have succeeded with a few more hits.
Hayesville bravely battled Cherokee, 7-5 overall, 4-5 conference, before accepting a 3-0 defeat.
The Lady Jackets sure played like victors though.
Hayesville’s ace of the circle Addie Bunch changed speeds masterfully and consistently made the right pitch as she struck out five, walked just two and allowed five hits in six innings.
The play behind her was also superb. Hayesville made just one error.
“Coming off of spring break, Addie pitched really well today, our defense looked good and we had some really good defensive plays,” Hayesville Coach Marissa Peck stated. “Gracelynn Anderson had a couple of putouts from third to first, Lila Roberts had one, Raylyn Taylor made some really good plays on some deeper fly balls that were in the grass behind second and Daylyn Murray saved probably a triple catching that ball in center field. That was a great catch.”
Good pitching and stellar defense kept Hayesville in the game until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Cherokee plated 2 runs on Tyanna Ledford’s two-RBI double with one out. Bunch left Ledford on second, ending the uprising by inducing a pair of pop-ups to sure-handed second baseman Taylor.
The brightest defensive gems were made by the “lyns.” Murray’s catch at the fence in the second inning shut the door on a Cherokee uprising. Taylor’s backpedaling grab in the third inning was Big League all the way.
If only Hayesville’s bats worked a bit better. “Our offense is still not hitting on all cylinders yet,” Peck said. “We definitely had more base runners on base. We can’t execute our bunts like we’re wanting to to move runners into scoring position and things like that. So hopefully that will start coming together as we work on getting more hits.”
The Yellow Jackets managed just four singles and left base runners stranded in the first, second, third, fourth and seventh innings.
Actually, the Lady Jackets’ bats warmed up as the game went on. Cherokee pitcher Paytyn Barker recorded seven strikeouts in the first three innings, but Hayesville’s batters became more disciplined and put the ball in play 11 times in 13 at bats in the final four innings. Most noteworthy was a fourth-inning single Anderson roped to left center, a hot smash to short Bunch nearly beat out in the sixth, Murray’s infield single in the seventh and Bryleigh Kreiger’s perfect sacrifice bunt in the same inning.
Anderson led Hayesville with two hits.
The Lady Yellow Jackets will try to capture their third win of the season when Cherokee visits Hayesville for a rematch at 4:30 Friday, April 21.
“Our hope is to make the proper adjustments and come back Friday with a big win,” Peck concluded.