The Lady Panthers were clicking on all cylinders Thursday, limiting the Lady Devils to one hit while mashing the ball en route to a 14-0 short-game victory.
Daviess County was trying to put some pressure on Owensboro early, quickly loading the bases thanks to two walks and a hit by pitch. Sophomore Paige Hughes then entered the game for senior Brooklyn Keller, as Hughes walked junior Jessie Daniels to plate the first run of the day.
Senior Katie Mewes snapped a grounder to third the following at-bat, but they chose to make a play at first and the Lady Panthers gained a 2-0 lead heading into the second. After a 1-2-3 inning for the Lady Devils, Daviess County opened it up. The bases were quickly loaded once again, where a run was walked in to start the scoring.
Two wild pitches followed, scoring a run each for the Lady Panthers before an error by Keller on a fly ball in right made it 6-0. Senior Kinsey Vergason then popped up to second, but an error made it 7-0.
Senior Seana Leibfried then sent one to the warning track in left, capping off a six-run inning and giving Daviess County an 8-0 lead.
Errors continued to plague Owensboro in the third, as with runners on second and third Hattie Newman lined out to third but an error on a double play attempt second led to a run scoring. Two batters later Daniels was given a 3-0 green light, as she sent a moonshot to center to make it an 11-0 game going into the bottom of the third.
Owensboro’s luck never changed either, as the Lady Panthers scored three runs combined in the fourth and fifth to secure the 14-0 victory.
Juniors Raylee Roby and Alexis Jackson handled things in the circle, combining for the complete-game one-hit shutout. Roby allowed the lone hit while striking out six in three innings, while Jackson blanked the Lady Devils in her two innings while striking out three in the process.
Jackson has picked up steam as of late, throwing a shutout most recently against Muhlenberg County. Adding another strong outing today in relief, Biggs is proud of the progress the junior righty is making.
“Alexis is really growing,” Biggs said. “We talked a little bit and we just want her to be a little more consistent, try not to get behind batters and try to stay away from those full count situations. But I thought tonight she threw as well as I’ve seen her throw this year. I thought her balls were moving. We were able to go up in the zone, which we haven’t done a whole lot.”
Offensively Daniels led the way with four RBIs, while Newman, Mewes, Hill, Vergason and Leibfried all chipped in one each.
While Daviess County was able to record seven hits, seven walks and six errors by the Lady Devils led to 12 unearned runs on the day. This is something Owensboro Head Coach Quincy Moorman said he isn’t super concerned about given that they’d pitched well despite some adversity in the last week or so.
“It was an issue early on and then our pitchers kind of settled in there for a big stretch,” Moorman said. “One of our pitchers went down last week and will be out for a week or two and we’ve been pitching well… I thought we were back on track until tonight. It happens. It’s just one of those games.”
For Daviess County, Biggs is glad to see his team getting back to making solid contact and putting together complete games more consistently.
“We’ve had some games that we’ve had to kind of play old-fashioned softball where weren’t putting up a whole lot of runs,” Biggs said. “But with our pitching and our defense we’re not probably not going to give up a whole lotta runs too if we’re playing well. I like where we’re at right now.”
Meanwhile, Owensboro falls to 6-13 and 0-5 in district play with the loss. The Lady Devils will look to get back to the lab after prom on Friday, looking to consistently improve before a busy week that starts at 5:30 on Monday, May 3 against Ohio County.
“We’ve got a game Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next week, so we’ll get back on the field Monday,” Moorman said. “We’ll get back in the circle, back on the diamond and hopefully come out with some wins next week.”
On the other hand, Daviess County improves to 16-3 and 5-1 in district, setting them up for a chance at the No. 1 seed in the 9th District Tournament.
“I said ‘right now this is the most important game we’ve played all season,’” Biggs said. “Because this gives us an opportunity to be in the running for the No. 1 seed depending on what happens next week. Everything that we kind of base our season on is trying to put ourselves in the best position when it comes tournament time. So this was the game that we needed to take care of.”
Following the win, the Lady Panthers will return to action this weekend with the opportunity for more players to get involved.
“On Saturday we’re going to take the kids that are not going to prom and we’re gonna fill in down in a varsity tournament down in Greenwood just to give those kids an opportunity. So we’re gonna play two games down there… It’ll be a good opportunity for those kids to see what they can do against varsity competition.”
Daviess County’s first game of the weekend will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday against Bowling Green, while the second will be at noon on Saturday against White House, Tennessee.
