COLONY — A pitchers’ duel went sour for Crest High’s softball team Thursday
The Lady Lancers were locked in a scoreless deadlock with visiting Jayhawk-Linn through the first four innings of their doubleheader before the Jayhawks took advantage of a hit batsman and a Crest fielding error to score a run on a ground ball. Another error and RBI single had Colony in arrears, 3-0.
Jayhawk-Linn tacked on four runs in the sixth in similar fashion — getting only one hit, but taking full advantage of walks and errors — to win 7-0.
By then, it was too late to slow the visitors’ momentum. Jayhawk-Linn took full control of the nightcap with a 15-run second inning, cruising to a 21-2 victory.
THE LADY Lancers flashed some serious leather in the early going. Catcher Kaelin Nilges threw out a Jayhawk baserunner in the top of the first, and Kaylee Allen made a dandy backhanded catch down the left field line to end the frame in support of starting pitcher Brooklynn Jones.
But Crest saw an early scoring opportunity evaporate after back-to-back walks with one out in the first. The inning ended with a strikeout double play after the Jayhawks threw out a baserunner at third.
Jones scattered seven hits over seven innings of work, with five strikeouts. She also had the team’s only hit, a sixth inning single.
JAYHAWK-LINN broke out of the gates quickly in the nightcap, scoring four times in the top of the first before Jones got things started in Crest’s half of the inning with a one-out triple. She scored on Delaney Ramsey’s RBI grounder.
But a walk and error in the top of the second set the tables for what became a 15-run inning. The Jayhawks tacked on two more in the third.
Crest’s Aylee Beckmon singled and scored for the Lady Lancers’ final run of the game.
Kinley Edgerton started on the mound, allowing three hits over 1.2 innings. Jones came on in relief, giving up six hits over 1.1 innings with a pair of strikeouts.
Jones’s triple and Beckmon’s single were Crest’s only hits.
The Lady Lancers will look for a shot at redemption Tuesday with a doubleheader against Southern Lyon County.
First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
