The Lady Cougar softball team ended a nine-game losing streak with a 9-5 win at Breckinridge County on Thursday.
Hits and runs have been hard to come by for this team this season, but on Thursday they pounded out 15 hits against two Breck pitchers and scored nine times, only one of which was unearned.
Lindsay O’Neal went the distance to earn the win. She gave up five runs on nine hits, but none of the runs were earned.
The Cougars put together seven hits in the first inning and scored six times. Kenzie Renfrow walked leading off the inning and moved to third on a double by O’Neal. Both runners then came home on a double to the fence in right-center by Maddie Duvall.
Duvall scored on a single up the middle by Bailey Snyder to make it 3-0. Rachael Snyder then lashed a ball back through the circle that struck Breck’s starting pitcher, Brianna Parr, and knocked her out of the game.
Brooke Ford took over for Parr and immediately gave up a run-scoring single by Jenna Nash to make it 4-0 and leave runners at first and third.
Nash stole second base before Shelby Davis drove in Rachael Snyder with a sacrifice fly to right field. Lauren Stevenson followed with a single to center that brought Nash home and made it 6-0.
Breck scored an unearned run in the first to make it 6-1. Bailey Caster led off with a single to left, and was safe at second on Duvall’s error on a ball hit by Chloe Peterson. Keleigh Boehman followed with a single to right to drive in Caster.
O’Neal then struck out the next three batters looking to end the inning.
The Lady Cougars scored twice in the second inning to make it 8-1. O’Neal led off with a single but was forced at second on a ground ball from Duvall.
Bailey Snyder then ripped a ball that was speared by Caster at third for the second out of the inning. Rachael Snyder followed with a run-scoring double, and Jenna Nash drove in her second run of the day with a single to center.
The Lady Cougars committed two errors in the bottom of the fourth that allowed the Lady Tigers to score four times and make the game interesting at 8-5.
The Lady Cougars then made it 9-5 with a run after two were out in the fifth. Renfrow reached on an error and moved to second on O’Neal’s third hit of the day, a single. Renfrow was able to score from second when Breck’s catcher, Morgan Tabor, threw the ball down the line in right on a pickoff attempt against O’Neal.
O’Neal retired nine of the last 11 batters she faced, including an inning-ending double play in the sixth, to put the game into the win column.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
