The softball and baseball teams for Clinton were both able to claim wins after taking down James Kenan Tuesday night. The softball team won by mercy rule, 16-7, while the baseball team goose-egged the Tigers 6-0.
Softball
The Lady Horses played the most well-rounded game they have all season, not only getting their first win of the year, but doing it by way of mercy rule while defending their home field on senior night.
“We final put together a complete game — everything was great tonight hitting, fielding, pitching it was all there,” said head coach Todd Slater. “Even when we had that bad inning, we bounced back quickly and got right back to what we were doing well and that’s what I like to see.”
Everything was surely working as the Lady Horses had hit the needed 15 runs for the mercy rule by the end of the third inning. Slater said the added boost of playing on senior night led to a peak performance.
“Our girls were really pumped up for senior night, they always are for every one we ever have,” Slater said. “The girls were really behind each other and the seniors were loud the entire game, which helped to fire everyone up. From that we just came together.”
“We battled tough tonight and the way we played is the team I know we can be,” he continued. “If we can keep putting together complete games like this, we’ll be OK.”
With their first win the Lady Dark Horses got to 1-11 over and 1-6 in conference, they hit the diamond again on Wednesday traveling to Harrells.
Baseball
While the baseball team didn’t win by the mercy rule, they managed to take the shutout victory over Tigers 6-0 at home.
The Horses set the pace for the game early on by getting on the board first with a run in the bottom of the opening inning. After going up 1-0 the game sat at a stand still until the bottom of the fourth.
With their second run of the night they pulled ahead of James Kenan 2-0 then another scoreless inning went by with the fifth. The game was basically won with the home teams performance in the bottom of the sixth. Ripping off four more unanswered runs to push the lead to six that would be the final runs scored on the night.
Payson King had an excellent night at bat going 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Lee Tyner, Cameron Ellis, Zack Parker, Charles Jordan, Skyler Canady, Trey Warren, Gabe Jackson and Andrew Thorton each had a hit. Parker had three RBIs while Jordan stole two bases and Warren stole one.
This win puts Clinton at 8-7 overall and 5-3 in conference. They’ll also face Harrells on the road Wednesday.
