Lady Flashes knock off Vicksburg
Published 12:08 am Sunday, March 11, 2012
Doubles and a delayed steal helped St. Aloysius take a 2-0 decision over their Bazinsky Park neighbors, Vicksburg High, at the Lady Vikes Invitational on Saturday.
The Lady Flashes used a clever baserunning tactic in the bottom of the third inning to take a 1-0 lead.
Mallory McGuffee led off with a double and was bunted to third. Allie Willis followed with a walk and then never broke stride in going to second base. Amidst Vicksburg’s confusion, McGuffee broke home and beat the tag.
“That’s a play we run when we have a runner on third, one out or less, and our batter gets a walk,” St. Al coach Gene Rogillio said. “Usually teams run a cut off play and Vicksburg did. But Mallory has what I call softball sense. She made a good hook slide and scored the run.”
With a 1-0 lead, St. Al pitcher Grace Franco got two quick outs in the top of the fourth inning. Sydney Bufkin reached on an infield hit and Victoria Lewis followed with a hit into left-center to put the Missy Gators in position to at least tie the game with another hit.
It did not come as Franco got Kortni Newman to tap a grounder back to the circle. Franco made the easy throw to first to leave the two Missy Gators stranded.
Haley Heggins began St. Al’s turn at bat in the fourth with a double to right-center. Madison Heggins belted the Lady Flashes’ third double of the game with a rope to left-center to score her sister for a 2-0 lead. The game was called at that point because of the tournament’s one-hour time limit.
McGuffee finished with two hits, a run scored and a stolen base. Madison Heggins had the lone RBI off of her double.
Franco scattered three hits and walked one while grabbing her fourth straight victory. Vicksburg pitcher Faith Thomas struck out three, but gave up six hits.
The win moved St. Al’s record to 4-0, but it didn’t finish the day unbeaten. In its second game, Warren Central’s Katie Busby had two hits and scored two runs — both on groundouts by Megan McCullough — as the Lady Vikes beat St. Al 2-0.
Vicksburg (4-5), meanwhile, earned a split in its tournament games with an 8-2 victory over Greenville-St. Joe. The Missy Gators scored five runs in the first inning, two of them on a double by Grace Bufkin. Blake DeRossette also had a hit and scored twice.
All three Warren County teams will be off this week for spring break. They will return to action on March 20, when WC hosts Clinton, Vicksburg plays at Pearl and St. Al plays at Puckett.