[8/13/04] When Ebony Martin reached third base in the fifth inning, the crowd at Halls Ferry Park let out a raucous cheer. Martin was the first Missy Gator to get past first base.

In the first game of the slow-pitch season for Vicksburg, Brookhaven jumped all over the Missy Gators for a 26-0 rout on Thursday. The Lady Cougars pounded out line drive after line drive, and also took advantage of seven VHS errors in the shellacking.

“Once they started hitting the ball, we just got down and just completely shut down,” first-year VHS coach Cori Crutchfield said.

Brookhaven coach Lisa Covington couldn’t recall the last time she’d been a part of such a one-sided game.

“We’ve hit the ball well in some games before, but this is probably one of the best we’ve had in the past couple of years,” Covington said.

Brookhaven (2-2) scored five runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings, and had eight cross the plate in the third inning.

“We’ve really just gotten on track, as far as hitting,” said Covington, whose team had scored only four runs in its previous three games. “We hit the ball well, pretty much up and down the lineup.”

Crutchfield was disappointed with her team’s defense, which she said allowed more runners to reach base and more runs to score than it should have.

“In order to stay with a team like that, you’ve got to be able to hit and you’ve got to be able to play good defense,” said Crutchfield, adding that the outfield let balls get past and the infield didn’t glove the ball cleanly. “That caused them to get on base, and therefore they scored runs. It’s just little bitty things that led up to the high score.”

The fact that it was Vicksburg’s first game, compared to Brookhaven’s fourth, played a big role in the loss, Crutchfield said.

“That had a big effect,” she said. “These girls were nervous. I was nervous going into it. They had no clue what to expect. Some of these girls have never played softball before.”

With a young team that features only two seniors and five starters that are freshmen or younger, Crutchfield is trying to stress the positives. The Missy Gators will be practicing hard to reach their goal of making the playoffs and finishing with a winning record, she said.

“We know what we need to work on now, so we’re going to take this and we have a whole week to prepare for the next game,” Crutchfield said. “We’re going to work on our weaknesses.”

Franklin 11, Porters Chapel 2

Franklin Academy stepped to the plate in the fifth inning of a tied game and soon turned it into a rout. The Lady Cougars scored 10 runs in the final three innings on Thursday to hand Porters Chapel its first loss of the season.

“We just had an offensive and defensive meltdown,” PCA coach Mike Grzanich said.

The teams played to a 1-1 tie after four, but mistakes took their toll on the Lady Eagles. PCA committed five errors in the game.

Annie Beaugh, Kory Miller and Bailey Williams each had a hit, but it was all the Lady Eagles (5-1) could muster.

Lauren Johnson (4-1) took the loss for Porters Chapel.