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The Lady Golden Eagles pounded out 10 hits in the home half for 11 runs, and cruised from there to win its Central Carolina Conference opener, 16-0.
“It was nice to get home and get that first win,” said East head coach Greg Fowler. “Any conference win is a good win.”
Starting pitcher Spencer Embler set the Yellow Jackets down in order in the top half of the first inning on two strikeouts and a 1-3 put out.
That set up what would become a long and painful bottom half that Lexington probably though would never end.
Nicole Welborn started the game with a bunt single and came around to score on a wild pitch for the 1-0 lead. Two batters Addie Chaney plated Brittany Smith on a double after Smith had coaxed a walk. From there, East added eight more hits to go along with three walks. Embler brought home runs 10 and 11 lacing a double to the gap in left-center, before the Golden Eagles showed good sportsmanship and helped Lexington get off the field.
Embler and Chaney were both called for leaving the bag before the pitch, and Lexington got an out on its own by catching a liner to left.
“We waited on some pitches, hit hard line drives and ran the bases smart,” said Fowler. “It may be little things that we try to get better at, but we just want to be better down the line.”
Kristin White came on to pitch the second inning and surrendered just one runner on a hit batsman.
When the Eagles came up again in the second, they put four more on the board to bring the 15-run rule into effect. Once again Embler graciously left the bag early to help end the inning.
White finished the day off early striking out the side in the top of the third to end the onslaught.
Fowler was pleased to see his team stay focused despite knowing the opponent was much weaker.
“What I told them out here was if we would have got out and started doing some crazy things, we would have digressed and we didn’t want to do that.
Welborn was 3-for-3 with two RBI, Chaney 2-for-2 with three RBI and Embler was 2-for-2 with three RBI.