Lady Bulldogs win 3
The Lady Bulldogs softball team moved their record to 3-3 on the year with wins over Seymour, Galena and Fordland this past week.
Gainesville suffered losses to Alton and Marionville. “We played pretty well last week, said Gainesville coach Joe Walrath. “The Seymour game was a team effort with good defense by the girls and Sailor Anderson pitching well. Jesse Latham, Debra Winrod, and Leigha Rowland added some good at bats and we pulled out the win.”
Next up for the Lady Bulldogs was the Alton Lady Comets.
“This game came down to hitting at the right time,” Walrath said. “Sailor didn’t have her best stuff on this day, and they got her timing in that fifth inning. The girls played good defense and I thought the highlight of the game was when freshman Emma McGinnis tracked a fly ball down in a howling wind and made a great catch.”
The Lady Bulldogs then traveled to Sparta on Friday and Saturday to play in the Sparta Tournament. First up was the Marionville Comets.
“It was one cold and windy game,” said Walrath. “The Comets came out swinging and put up a six-spot in the first inning. Sailor got the off-speed stuff working by the second and held them to two runs for the rest of the game but we could not overcome that first inning and they beat us 3-8. This put us in the consolation side and Galena was waiting for us on Saturday. We hit well up and down the lineup, defense was good, and Sailor was pitching well,” Walrath said.
Gainesville won that one 21-5. The Lady Bulldogs played Fordland for the consolation trophy. The game was back and forth until late when Gainesville put it together in the fifth and took a 7-2 victory to win that side of the bracket.
“Sailor pitched a great game, and the whole team played together,” Walrath said. “Bretlyn Kastning and Emory Warden had a good game, with the bats and hats off to my three freshmen who were all thrown into varsity roles all weekend. They stepped up to the challenge. I may have seen the best defensive play in all my years of coaching and umpiring softball. Debra Winrod made an ESPN highlight reel catch against Marionville. She ran all the way across center, made a full airborne dive, caught the ball and knew to turn the tip of the glove up, so when she crashed back to the ground it wouldn’t knock the ball out. If she doesn’t play college ball somewhere they will be missing out on a great player,” the coach said.