By Mitch Howard
Sports Writer
LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
Somerset jumped on South Laurel quickly and held on for a 6-2 win over the Lady Cardinals.
“They came out ready to play and we didn’t,” South Laurel coach James Burns said.
South Laurel was held scoreless until pushing a run across in the sixth inning and adding another in the seventh. Hitting had been a concern of Burns even in the three wins to open the season.
“We’ve not really hit. We’ve left base runner after base runner. We’re swinging under the ball, collapsing our knees and our shoulders and swinging up and that’s where it’s going,” Burns said.
The Lady Cardinals trailed 6-0 in the sixth when they put together consecutive singles from Amber Hyde, Megan Smith, and Chelsea Wemes. Hyde scored the team’s first run when Haylie Burns reached on an error. Two pop ups and a strikeout ended the threat.
“We dropped our hands and swung under everything. We’re better hitters than that. It’s just something we have to work on,” Burns said.
The Lady Cardinals pushed across one more run in the seventh. Destinee Fisher singled and scored on a double by Hyde.
In the first five innings, South Laurel managed just four hits with only one runner making it to second base. It gave plenty of time for Somerset to jump ahead with a pair of runs in the first inning and four in the third. The Briar Jumpers had seven hits in just those two innings.
“Our starting pitcher threw everything up in the zone and they just hit the fire out of it. They just came out hitting and kept hitting,” Burns said. “We didn’t really field badly. They just hit it and we didn’t.”
South Laurel will host Russell County Thursday and then play four games in the Early Spring Break Classic. Burns thought his team may have been looking ahead to the weekend and beyond.
“We’ve got to focus on the game instead of the other things. We’re thinking about the next game. We’re thinking about going to Florida. We’re thinking about things other than the game. We’ve got to focus on what’s happening right now,” Burns said.
mhoward@sentinel-echo.com
