Bluegrassrivals

Final

The Lady Titans get a huge district road win at arch rival Anderson County in extra innings. Collins scored two runs in the top of the 8th and ended the game on a double play. The win puts them in the drivers seed for the top seed in the 30th district.

Collins will be back in action this Saturday with one game a Manual and one game at U of L in the Thunder Round Robin.

Collins senior Jeneca Thomas earned her 7th win of the season in the circle allowing just 3 hits and striking out 5.

Collins senior 3rd baseman Sara Chambers went 3-for-3, inclduing the game winning RBI in the top of the 8th.

Collins...............101 000 02 - 4 11 3
Anderson County 000 020 00 - 2 3 1

WP - Jeneca Thomas (7-9)
LP - MacKenzie Peavler

2B - Lindsey Ketcham ©, Kara Owens ©, Sara Chambers ©
3B - Lindsey Ketcham ©
HR - Bailey Rankin ©

LAWRENCEBURG - The Collins softball team began its “second” season in dramatic fashion.

The visiting Titans tallied two runs in the top of the eighth inning to beat Anderson County 4-2 Monday evening in their 30th District opener.

Collins came in having lost four straight games – the last three over the weekend in the Capital City Showcase in Frankfort – and five of its previous six, but the Titans bounced back against the Bearcats.

“It’s a relief,” said senior Sara Chambers, whose one-out single in the eighth provided the go-ahead run. “We had a team meeting earlier today and we said, ‘Our season starts now,’ because it’s a big district game and every year it seems like we get beat by Anderson in the regular season.

“It feels really good to win again. We came out tonight and showed we’re a really different ball club.”

The Titans (7-9, 1-0), who lost only one starter from last season’s 8th Region runner-up squad, won their season-opener but then lost four straight games, when they committed 17 errors.

Miscues continued to plague Collins in its recent rough patch, which prompted Monday’s players-only meeting, which was led by the team’s seniors.

“People were blaming themselves when we lost,” Chambers said. “We discussed that there’s no ‘I’ in team. We win as a team and lose as a team.”

Anderson County beat the Titans twice during the regular season last year – including 6-5 in a nine-inning game that counted toward the district standings – before Collins blanked the Bearcats 4-0 in the 30th District semifinals last May.

In the final meeting Collins ace Jeneca Thomas pitched a four-hit, complete-game for the Titans on their way to the district title.

She picked up Monday where she left off. Thomas allowed Anderson just one hit in the first four innings as she got plenty of help at the plate, and in the field.

Sophomore Lindsey Ketcham, recently moved to the top spot in the batting order, led off the game with a stand-up triple to right-center field. She scored one batter later on Bailey Rankin’s sacrifice fly to right field.

After the Titans left the bases loaded in the second Rankin added to their lead when she led off the third with a solo home run to left field.

In the meantime Thomas was getting plenty of help from her defense. Left fielder Kara Owens made a sliding catch in the first inning before Ketcham made a similar catch of her own in the second. Rankin, a junior center fielder, robbed Anderson’s Kaci Currens of an extra-base hit in the third before Chambers diving stop and successful throw to first ended Anderson’s first scoring threat in the fourth.

“I need about a gallon of Mylanta and a case of Rolaids,” Collins Coach Jim Axline said aloud before the start of the fifth inning.

As it turned out he could have used them.

In the bottom of the inning a throwing error by shortstop Becca Mouser opened the door for a pair of Bearcat runs.

Anderson County (7-8, 1-1) threatened again in the bottom of the seventh when second baseman Amanda Buresh made a one-out error, then Thomas walked Molly Burkhead. However Thomas got the next batter, Anna Marie Hyatt, to pop out then Buresh made a nice recovery on a high hopper off the bat of Bailey Curry to end the inning.

In the eighth, which was played under international rules, freshman Sam Veal started on second base. After Buresh popped out Chambers hit a high fly ball down the leftfield line that dropped in fair.

“It was right down the middle,” Chambers, who went 3-for-3 at the plate, said of the pitch. “I haven't been hitting it very well, but Axline tells us to want to be in that kind of situation. This was the one time I wanted it and I got it and I executed. It felt really good.”

Mouser then followed with a hit through the right side that scored freshman Blake Holder, who was running for Chambers.

With Sydney Stratton starting on second Thomas walked the first batter she faced, Hannah Searcy, in the bottom of the eighth. However the next hitter, Corrin Robinson, hit a sharp line drive to center, where Rankin made the catch then quickly threw to second to double-up Stratton, who was well on her way to third. Thomas then got her counterpart, MacKenzie Peavler, to fly out to Rankin to end the game.

Thomas gave up just three hits while walking four and striking out five.

“They realized tonight you can make a few mistakes and still pull through it,” said Axline, whose team will play in the Thunder Round Robin Tournament at Manual on Saturday. “I needed to see that more than anything else, I needed to see some heart.

“This game is always going to be a battle, I was proud of the way they responded. I said, ‘The season starts now,’ so hopefully we can build on this and keep going.”





Collins 4, Anderson County 2

Collins 101 000 02 – 4 11 3

Anderson County 000 020 00 – 2 3 1

Jeneca Thomas and Alex Baker. MacKenzie Peavler and Bailey Curry.

W – Thomas (7-9)
L – Peavler.

2B – Lindsey Ketcham (CHS), Kara Owens (CHS), Sara Chambers (CHS).
3B – Ketcham (CHS).
HR – Bailey Rankin (CHS).

Records – Collins 7-9, Anderson County 7-8.

http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/tita...eason-bang

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Collins senior Sara Chambers rounds second base during the Titans' 4-2 8-inning victory at Anderson County on Monday in their first 30th District game of the season. Chambers went 3-for-3 and had the game-winning RBI for Collins.

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Collins senior Jeneca Thomas delivers a pitch.

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Bailey Rankin smiles on her way to third base after hitting a solo home run in the third inning.

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Lindsey Ketcham beats the throw home.

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Shortstop Becca Mouser covers a throw down to second base.

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Jeneca Thomas delivers another pitch.

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Lindsey Ketcham watches her lead-off triple.

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Lindsey Ketcham on her way to third base.

http://www.sentinelnews.com/content/tita...eason-bang