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Maybe it was a carry over from their nine inning game with rival Ledford on Wednesday, but the Lady Golden Eagles came out flat and lethargic. But a stern talk at the mound from coach Greg Fowler changed the actions of the infielder’s, and East suddenly snapped out of its trance.
“We didn’t exactly start out the way we had planned, but I was proud of the way we bounced back,” said Fowler.
Trinity simply put the ball in play during the first inning and let East field the ball. But the Golden Eagles had trouble fielding the ball and faced a 3-0 deficit before finally waking up.
Senior Nicole Welborn was playing in her final game at home and got one of the runs back on her own. She dropped down a bunt single, stole two bags and came home on a wild pitch.
“Nicole getting on base and scoring that run was big, to kind of get us started back,” said Fowler. “We just chipped away at it.”
East tied the game in the third on a trio of hard hits to the outfield. Candace Fox doubled over the left fielder’s head with one out and moved up 60 feet a batter later with senior Taylor Vance driving the ball to left in a tough sun that cost the fielder a play. Both would score on Anna Freeman’s laser to the gap in right-center with two outs, but Freeman got greedy and was thrown out digging for two that ended the inning, and erased the memories of the first inning.
Brittany Smith would account for the go-ahead run in the fourth turning a leadoff single into a run on Lauren Wagner’s grounder to short.
East pitcher Kristen White settled down after the shaky first from her defense, keeping the Trinity batters held in check. With the bat, she helped her own cause in the fifth driving in the second of two runs that provided a 6-3 lead that would prove to be insurmountable for the Bulldogs.
“We re getting to the time of year where it is one and done, so we want to be playing as well as we possibly can,” said Fowler of the looming CCC tournament and playoffs.
The Golden Eagles grabbed the No. 3 seed and welcome No. 6 Salisbury at 5 p.m. on Monday for the first round of the tournament. A win puts them in the semifinals on Tuesday at Ledford.
Welborn and Fox had two hits apiece for the 10-8 Eagles.