Harvey Simpson
Cordele Dispatch
Nashville —
By HARVEY SIMPSON
Dispatch Sports Editor
NASHVILLE — After going unbeaten through its first seven outings of the season, Crisp County High’s Lady Cougars have traveled in an opposite direction in their last two starts.
On the heels of a 5-3 loss on Monday to Colquitt County, coach Kevin Blampied’s squad dropped a 2-1 decision Tuesday to Berrien County. That outcome left them 6-2-1) heading into a 5 p.m. home game today vs. Westover.
“We faced a really good pitcher who was an all-state selection last year,” Blampied said in lauding the Lady Rebels’ hurler who struck out nine, walked three and hit two batters.
“At the same time, Hallye (Hobbs) deserved a better fate as she pitched well for us, too (limiting the winners to just two hits while striking out three and issuing no walks) in one of those old-fashioned pitchers duels.”
After Berrien took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a pair of Crisp County errors and a base hit, the Lady Cougars pulled even in the fifth. Jensen Holt walked and then raced home from on Taylor Perry’s double that came on a 3-2 count. An infield pop-up left Perry stranded.
Crisp mounted a major scoring threat in the seventh, loading the bases when Hobbs and Deanna Brubaker were hit by pitches and Perry punched a two-out single. As in the fifth, a pop-up ended the inning.
The visitors got runners to second and third to open the eighth only to see the next two batters go down swinging and the third one pop up again.
The stage was thus set for the deciding run Berrien pushed across in the last of the eighth. The runner automatically placed at second base to open the frame came home when the next batter was hit by a throw to first base on her sacrifice bunt.
“I was much happier with our performance today than I was yesterday’s showing,” Blampied said. “We played good defense at times and were shaky at times, but for the most part I thought we did well in the field.
“Overall, it really was a great game as well as a good experience that we hopefully can build on during our upcoming region (1-AAA) contests.”
