By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
The defense was there for the Pam Pack as it faced off against South Central, unfortunately the offense didn’t quite make it as Falcons’ hurler Caroline Wainwright silenced Washington 11-0 in five innings on Thursday.
The Pack played flawlessly in field, which was highlighted by a few nice grabs by center fielder Katelyn Singleton and a rifle throw by catcher Hayley Stowe to foil a stolen base attempt early in the game. However, Washington’s strong defense could only hold back the undefeated Falcons (9-0, Coastal Conference) for so long.
South Central struggled to hit Morgan Bryant consistently, but when they pieced together rallies they were big.
The Falcons were held scoreless in the first, second and fourth innings, but strung together four runs in the third with a two-out rally and seven in the fifth inning to seal the deal.
Wainwright, the Falcons’ junior right-hander hummed bullets at the Pam Pack batters for five straight innings as she struck out six while allowing three hits and no walks.
“She is a very effective pitcher,” Washington coach Doug Whitehead said. “We put the ball in play and got runners on, but we couldn’t take advantage of it. … Their two big innings were the difference in the ball game.”
Bryant struck out two batters in five innings and issued four walks in the loss.
“Morgan had to feed it tonight, she wasn’t getting much on the corners or high or low so the batters kind of sat on it,” Whitehead said.
The Pack coach said his pitchers have to do a better job of throwing strikes early.
“Our pitchers have to get ahead of the batters and force the issue on them instead of them being able to chose,” Whitehead said.
The Falcons lineup was littered with strong hitters and got great production from the heart of their order.
South Central’s No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters went a combined 6-7 and drove in seven RBIs. Shayla Churchill led the way going 2-3 with a double and a triple to drive in five runs.
Pam Pack leadoff hitter Kristi Wood seemed to be the only hitter who could touch Wainwright as she finished the day 2-3. Caroline Smith had the team’s only other hit.
Whitehead said that one promising portion of play was the team’s defense.
“Our defense tonight … I was very, very impressed with it,” Whitehead said. “We decided to bring out outfield in and we were able to come up and make some plays on a couple of bloops and flairs.”
The Pam Pack (1-5, Coastal Conference) will be back in action on Saturday when it plays in the D.H. Conley Easter tournament.
South Central 004 07 — 11 11 1
Washington 000 00 — 0 3 0
WP: Caroline Wainwright; Morgan Bryant
SC — Kayla Ruffin 2-4, Morgan Davis 1-3, Shayla Churchill 2-3 (2B, 3B, 5 RBI), Caroline Wainwright 1-2 2 RBI, Ashton Barbee 2-2, Brittany Haggerty 1-3, Paige Davis 3-3, Casey Bowen 1-3 RBI; W — Kristi Wood 2-3, Caroline Smith 1-2.