Getting a dominant performance in all facets of the game, the Lady Panthers defeated Apollo 11-0 to get revenge for their previous district loss.
Junior Kayley Payne helped kickstart things for Daviess County, earning a walk and then moving her way to third on a ground out. The next at-bat senior Millie Roberts grounded one to second, scoring Payne and sending the Lady Panthers into the second up 1-0.
After shutting the E-gals down in the top half, Daviess County found themselves with a great scoring opportunity with the bases loaded following Annie Newman’s walk.
Senior Sophie Simone proceeded to bring one in with an infield single. Junior Emmie Bullington managed to earn a force out at the plate the next at-bat, but Hattie Newman’s grounder to third left eighth grader Arianna Ramirez with no choice but to tag the runner at third and let a run score to make it a 3-0 game.
With junior Raylee Roby holding Apollo hitless through three, the Lady Panthers didn’t let up either. The offense was still clicking, adding three more to take a 6-0 lead into the fourth.
Daviess County added more injury to insult in the bottom of the fourth, extending its lead to 11-0 with a five-run outburst.
“If you make teams move and you’re hitting balls hard, good things are eventually gonna happen for you,” Biggs said. “We were hitting the ball well. I thought we were patient with our gameplan on pitches we were going to try and lay off and get pitches we could handle.”
While the E-gals did get their first hit of the day with a double from Ramirez in the top of the fifth, Roby had more than enough run support behind her and she shut the door to secure the victory for the Lady Panthers.
Roby allowed just the one hit in the shutout, going five innings and not walking anyone to go with her five strikeouts.
Offensively Daviess County didn’t skip a beat either, as six different players recorded RBIs on the day. Seniors Seana Leibfried and Sophie Simone, as well as eighth grader Annie Newman had two RBIs each to lead the way.
Leibfried has had a strong week at the plate, turning in five RBIs and has gone 5-6 in two shutout district victories this week. After some tough losses Leibfried said she and others have refocused, which has helped her individually at the plate.
“These past few games against Catholic and tonight, I think in my head I’ve taken a completely different approach myself,” Leibried said. “I think we all have after the tough loss to Apollo last week… Myself, I think I’ve really just taken a different approach going into the box.”
The bottom of the lineup has been especially strong for the Lady Panthers after some recent offensive struggles, something Biggs and company pride themselves on.
“We’ve got quality batters up and down that lineup…” Biggs said. “We don’t look at it as top and bottom. We look at someone in the seven-hole, the nine-hole, the six-hole, or whatever, that’s gotta get up there and produce for us.”
Bullington didn’t have her strongest performance on the mound for Apollo, giving up six earned runs on seven hits in three innings. Senior Sydney Saalwechter didn’t have much more luck, giving up four runs—three earned—on two hits in a third of an inning pitched.
The E-gals didn’t fare much better in the field either, having four errors on the day. A few of those came via some baserunning antics by the Lady Panthers as well, trying to force them into mistakes to score runs.
“We kicked it around a little bit, let them take some extra bases and stuff,” Julian said. “They’re aggressive on the bases and we know that going in, we just have to make routine plays. We had four errors. To beat Daviess County you’re going to have to have an error-free or one-error ballgame. You can’t give them extras.”
Despite the loss, Apollo remains at 3-1 in district play and 8-8 overall and they are feeling good about where they sit overall and in the district rankings as the schedule ramps up.
“We’re right there,” Julian said. “We still have a chance to be a one-seed. We gotta take care of business for the next two games against Catholic and Owensboro. Same thing they’ve gotta do. We’re right where we wanna be and just [want] to get better each day.”
The E-gals will take a few days off before returning to action, as they will look to defend their home field when they take on South Spencer at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Daviess County improves to 15-3 overall and 3-1 in district play with the win, as they have a doubleheader with games against Male and Woodford County at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Woodford County Invitational on Saturday.
