After suffering back-to-back cancellations for its games against Lincoln County and Shelbyville, Warren County softball finally had the chance to play in front of its home crowd for the first time this season in McMinnville Wednesday evening.
Hosting the Lady Falcons for a district matchup previously scheduled for March 20, the Lady Pioneers fell behind early and were kept off the scoreboard in a 5-0 loss.
“You’re not gonna win many games when we leave the bases loaded twice,” Warren County coach Jerry Martin said. “We had chances, just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it.”
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning, Warren County quickly loaded the bases on a ground ball single to third base from Ky Damon, a walk for Lola Wells and a Lincoln County error that allowed Addison Smith to reach first base.
A trio of strikeouts followed, ending the inning and leaving all three runners stranded.
Lincoln County continued to build its lead from there, adding one run each in the second, third and fifth innings.
The Lady Pioneers once again loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, starting with a line drive single to center field from Kaydence Wiser. Up next at the plate was Lily Rains, who doubled on a fly ball to center and sent Wiser to third.
With two outs on the board, the Lady Falcons intentionally walked Ruby Denning, but a strikeout on the next at-bat ended the inning and kept Warren County scoreless.
The Lady Pioneers surrendered one more run in the top of the seventh, then closed out the game with runners on third and second in the bottom of the inning.
“We’ve gotta be a better-hitting team. We’ve gotta learn how to hit. We’ve gotta be able to know when to be aggressive and not be aggressive. It depends nightly. It depends on the pitcher,” Martin said. “We haven’t learned that yet, but it’s early, first home game, so I expect us to get better.”
Warren County finished the game with five hits, led by Damon with two. Smith, Wiser and Rains each added one.
In the circle, Ceilee Gudat pitched five innings and recorded two strikeouts, six hits, four runs and one walk. Kyaira Sharpe followed for two innings and added two hits, one run and one walk.
