Community R-6 breaks through slumps to 11-0 win in Paris

Community R-6 softball won its 10th game of the season on Wednesday night.

Community R-6 at Paris Photo Gallery

With it being mid-September, the Lady Trojans have received contributions from the entire roster and that was the case for their 11-0 five-inning victory at Paris. Community scored nine runs in a 13-batter inning while Paris couldn’t overcome seven errors to allow 11 unearned runs.

Community R-6 head coach Kendra Murphy said she liked the swings taken by her players throughout the game, but the Lady Trojans were just finding more real estate in the fifth inning.

“We put some good swings on the ball early in the game, but it just kept going right at people,” Murphy said. “There were some that didn’t swing at such good pitches or didn’t swing early enough in the count early in the game. Later, it just started clicking for them or they started hunting pitches early in the count and not letting that changeup affect them.”

Murphy said some Lady Trojans (10-2) have been struggling at the plate recently, and the team is happy that they broke through against Kennedy Ashenfelter and Paris (3-6). Brooklynn Glasgow finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and two doubles, Amy McCurdy had two RBI, and Jocelyn Curtis and Taylor Johnson each had a RBI.

Both Glasgow doubles happened in the fifth inning, with the first being a near home run, and Curtis also reached base multiple times in the game, sending several hard-hit balls at the Lady Coyotes.

“Brooklynn and J (Jocelyn) were two of them struggling,” Murphy said. “J has been early a lot so getting her to wait back and we finally had a pitcher with a little bit of speed so she didn’t have to wait back as much. BK (Brooklynn), we’ve been working on some things with her swing and it looked a lot better today.”

Glasgow made her presence felt in other ways as she caught two runners trying to steal — almost catching a third — and worked with Curtis during her five innings of four strikeouts, three hits and two walks. In previous years, Glasgow said she has had innings with multiple RBI hits like on Wednesday, but it has been a wait so far this year.

“This year, it hasn’t happened very many times,” Glasgow said. “The pitcher was throwing it down the pipe so we just had to sit back and adjust. Once I got her timing down, my ball went for me. I’m glad I could come around for my team finally.”

Paris head coach Collin Huffman said Ashenfelter was fine in the circle despite taking a break in the middle of the game before being taken out in the fifth inning. Huffman said she was feeling a little sick at that moment and the plan going in, regardless, was to remove her before facing the lineup more than three times. He said the problem was the defense.

Huffman said shaky defense has been the story behind the Lady Coyotes’ losses this season as they had a handful of plays in the fifth inning where the ball hit a fielder in the glove only for the runner to reach. On Monday night in Salisbury, Paris lost 10-0 in five innings again but could have extended the game if not for five unearned runs.

“It’s not trying to make some fantastic play. It’s making routine plays,” Huffman said. “That’s what’s killed us in every game we’ve lost. Part of that is we’re really young, but we’ve got to be better than that too. Every error usually leads to about 1.4 runs a game. I’ve figured that stuff out in five years so I tell them, if you can have two errors or less, you won’t give up more than three runs.”

There was a play that should’ve been made by Paris in the third inning when Community had two outs. The Lady Trojans extended the inning to McCurdy, who then took an outside pitch the opposite way down the right field line to score the first two runs of the game. Murphy said that at-bat helped out while the lineup figured things out at the plate.

“We’ve been talking with Amy a lot about being selective with the pitches that she hits,” Murphy said. “She gets the choppers. She was patient and she waited for that outside pitch that was a little bit up and she was able to get her hands extended.”

Curtis said Community remembers losing 1-0 to Paris last season, which was a game Ashenfelter pitched for seven innings with one hit. She said the Lady Trojans were ready to play, including her as she accomplished what she wanted to do in the circle.

“I hit my spots again, and my defense was backing me up,” Curtis said. “We have to make sure we’re on our game on defense and in our outfield because they have some pretty powerful hitters.”

Murphy said Alyssa Beamer had a nice defensive game in center field as she ran down two balls in the second inning, including a diving catch for the third out to prevent two runs from scoring. Glasgow erasing runners at catcher helped keep Curtis and the Lady Trojans in the clear.

“I like to contribute to some outs just like the rest of the girls,” Glasgow said. “It puts girls out so we don’t have runners on to score.”

Community plays in the Cairo tournament today, starting with its first-round game at 10 a.m. against Moberly on the softball field. Paris plays in the North Shelby tournament today, starting at 9 a.m. against Bevier on field 2.

Painter starts, closes out 8-3 Community R-6 win vs Slater

Paige Painter was in the middle of everything during Tuesday’s home conference win.

Community R-6 defeated Central Activities Conference foe Slater (1-4, 1-3 CAC) 8-3 thanks to 10 strikeouts and two earned runs on two hits and two walks in seven innings pitched from Painter along with her 3-for-4 day at the plate with two RBI.

Jocelyn Curtis finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, and Amy McCurdy, Alyssa Beamer and Taylor Johnson each had an RBI.

Painter’s single in the first inning allowed Brooklynn Glasgow to score on the play to start a four-run inning and then Painter’s single brought the first run of three in the second inning for the Lady Trojans.