Day two in Salisbury for the 1st tournament for the Lexington Hurricanes started early…at the field at 8:00 for a 9:00 game. We started the day knowing that we had to win to keep playing. The weather was gloomy and we had a few brief moments of rain…but after looking at the forecast earlier in the week, I think we got off lucky! In the 1st game of the morning, we were facing a team from Randolph County and wouldn’t you know it…I bumped into someone I knew from the racetrack!!! It was great to see Cindy York Carlyle today...it was a total “SHOCKER” that her daughter was wearing #24! In the 1st game our girls were in the field first and we took a little while to get going…giving up 3 runs before recording the first out. I’ll have to say that it was early, chilly and damp…enough to slow anyone down! We allowed 2 more runs before striking out two batters back-to-back to end the inning. In the bottom half of the inning, our girls rebounded a bit…but still found ourselves behind 5-3 as we headed to the 2nd inning. Our games are limited to an hour and 15 minutes so we generally only get to play 3 innings…so we knew we needed to have good defensive innings so we could get back in to hit. The 2nd inning both teams scored 3 runs…making the score 8-6 as we headed into the 3rd inning and the rapidly approaching time limit. Once again, the team from Randolph County put 3 more runs on the scoreboard to stretch their lead to 11-6…but the top half of the inning ended on a high note for the girls in yellow and black! With 2 outs and a runner on 1st, the runner attempted to steal 2nd base. The throw was just out of the reach of our shortstop…but Bri was backing up the play in center field and threw the girl out trying to advance to 3rd. That play got us out of the inning and fired up the girls as we came into the dugout. The time limit had expired, but we knew that we had one more chance to bat and one final shot to win and advance in the tournament. Riding the momentum from the last play of the last inning…our first batter stepped up and hit a 2-1 pitch to the right center field fence to lead off the Hurricanes with an in the park home run!!! A walk, a single and a walk loaded the bases for our girls…and there were still NO outs!!! Down 11-7, our next batter walked scoring one more and making it 11-8 with the bases loaded and Brianna stepping up to the plate representing the winning run. Bri hit the 1st pitch right up the middle for a 3 RBI double and then advanced to 3rd base on the throw to the plate!!! STILL NO OUTS!!! 4 pitches later…the ball squirted passed the catcher and Brianna raced home to score the winning run…and the Hurricanes advanced to the next round after an exciting 12-11 win!!! Unfortunately that’s where the excitement ended as in the next round; we could only muster 2 runs off of 2 hits…and we stranded 6 runners over the course of 3 innings. Brianna had another great day…the big defensive play in the first game, and a good day at the plate going 1 for 1 in the first game with a walk, a double and 3 RBI’s. In the second game she beat out a groundball to 3rd base for a base hit in her only plate appearance of the game. I am SO proud of her determination and grit…I can’t wait to watch her improvement over the course of the upcoming tournaments All-in-all, the Lexington Hurricanes finished out first tournament with a record of 2 and 3. They scored 37 runs and in five games (their first together as a team) only committed 6 errors! There were so many great things they accomplished this weekend…and they still will do nothing but improve the more they play together. By the way…the team that beat us in the first game yesterday and the final game today…finished 1st and 2nd respectively in our bracket today. Go Hurricanes!!!
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:31:31 +0000
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