Harvey Simpson
Cordele Dispatch
Cordele —
CORDELE — Just when it looked like they were destined for a third loss in their last four starts, Crisp County High’s Lady Cougars perked up in the last of the seventh to nip Coffee County in a Tuesday thriller.
Down 6-3 heading into their final at bat, coach Kevin Blampied’s squad rallied for four runs and a 7-6 victory gave them an overall record of 8-2.
“We had a bit of a layoff (the team hadn’t played in four days) and played like it,” Blampied said in reflecting upon a win that proved more difficult to achieve than their previous 8-1 decision over the Lady Trojans.
“The big thing, though, was that we found a way to come back and post a win we’ll gladly take and try to build on as we try to get ready for the couple of games we have on tap next week.”
Until its late scoring flurry, Crisp had led only once. That was at 1-0 after an inning when Sydne Mitchell singled, stole second and eventually scored on Taylor Perry’s grounder.
Coffee used a walk, two Lady Cougar errors and an RBI single to score two unearned in the second and an inning later strung together four hits for a couple of earned tallies and a 4-1 advantage.
The home team trimmed its deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the third when it started out by loading the bases on a single by Mitchell, an error that allowed Perry to reach and a walk by Anna Posey. Mitchell scored when Shelby Simmons lived on a miscue. Cassidy Jolly’s single plated Perry.
The visitors got one of those runs back in the fourth via a double, passed ball and ground out and tallied another time in the fifth on back-to-back doubles.
The stage thus was set for Crisp’s late comeback that began with Taylor Holmes and Shelby Simmons reaching base on errors. Jolly punched a single to score Holmes’ pinch runner, Lauren Clements. After Lakyn Arnett walked, Deanna Brubaker’s single delivered Simmons and Jolly.
With the score thus deadlocked, the Lady Cougars failed to get the bat on the ball on a suicide squeeze but still got the winning run across anyway when the Coffee catcher threw wildly to third trying to get Arnett out.
“It was good to see us claw back like we did in a game where we had trouble getting the clutch hit that could have given us a little breathing room in the early going,” Blampied said.
“I was also proud of the job turned in by both of our pitchers (starter Hallye Hobbs fanned and walked one while allowing seven hits in her four innings of work while Jolly whiffed two, walked none and yielded four safeties).”
Mitchell emerged as Crisp’s top hitter with three singles to her credit. Jolly and Brubaker collected two hits.
Crisp makes its next start Tuesday at 5:45 at Lee.
