LCHS Lady Panthers host East Hickman Lady Eagles

The Lewis County High School Lady Panthers softball team hosted District 11AA foe the East Hickman Lady Eagles on Thursday, April 15th at LCHS.

Emily Graves took the mound to start for the Lady Panthers and gave up a run in the first after a one-out hit batter and an error followed by a single to center to give East Hickman a 1-0 lead after a half inning. The Lady Panthers would get a leadoff single from Bria Willcutt followed by a single by Emma Tinnon and a two-out single by Graves to claim a 2-1 lead. The Lady Eagles benefitted from Lady Panther errors to start the second with runners on, but the defense got off the field with no damage done. Piper Belvin started the home second with a double and Zoie Clark reached on a bunt single before a well-executed sacrifice bunt by Trinley Greene. Singles by Willcutt and Keira Halbrooks would add 3 runs in the inning and the Lady Panthers took a 5-1 lead. Graves would pitch a scoreless third, working around a one-out walk. Nylah Halbrooks connected on a one-out single and moved into scoring position ahead of a run-scoring single by Belvin to give the Lady Panthers a 6-1 lead after three complete. East Hickman started the fourth with a walk and, with one out, delivered a two-run homerun to right-center to cut the lead to 6-3. Willcutt picked up her third hit of the game leading off the bottom of fourth and stole second. Emma Tinnon followed with a double, and Anna Kate Duncan delivered a run-scoring single followed by an RBI single by Graves to rebuild the Lewis County lead to 9-3.A leadoff homerun by the Lady Eagles made the score 9-4 after four and a half, and the score held as the Lady Panthers went down in order in the bottom half. The Lady Eagles would get a one-out single and a two-out double but be kept off the board in the sixth, and Lewis County would be limited to a two-out walk to Keira Halbrooks to keep the score 9-3 after six complete. East Hickman would battle back in the top of the seventh, starting with the leadoff batter reaching on an error. 5 hits in the inning with a couple of walks would open the door for 5 runners to cross the plate to tie the game at 9. The Lady Panthers would get consecutive one-out singles from Nylah Halbrooks and Belvin but couldn’t push the game-ending run across and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the eighth the Lady Eagles would get a leadoff single and a runner reached on an error to start the inning. With one out in the inning, a double would plate two and with two outs a homerun would cap a 5-run outburst to give the visitors a 14-9 lead. Willcutt would reach on a one-out single, but the Lady Panthers fell short and took loss 14-9.

Bria Willcutt had 4 hits and 3 runs on the day, Emma Tinnon 2 hits, a double, and 2 runs, Keira Halbrooks a hit, Anna Kate Duncan a hit and a run, Emily Graves 2 hits, Nylah Halbrooks 2 hits and a run, Piper Belvin 3 hits, a double, and a run, and Zoie Clark a hit and a run scored.