While their offense has often overcome what the Clipper varsity girls may lack defensively this spring, facing a fast arm, their bats were all but silent on Tuesday in a 7-1 home loss to Martin County West.
The Clippers were coming off a 26-6 drubbing of host Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons 24 hours earlier.
“I don’t know if we psych ourselves out, because I see in practice the girls can hit some good, fast-paced pitching, but we’ll keep working on it,” said head coach Mike Barten.
The Clippers’ lone run against MCW came in the sixth when Keira Schipper beat out a hit toward the shortstop for a single and scored when Laci Hollerich dropped a single into right field.
Anna Lamont singled in the third for the only other Clipper hit. The Clippers whiffed in 11 plate appearances and walked twice.
The Clippers committed two errors. The Mavericks’ one error came in the first after Schipper walked and took second on botched pickoff attempt.
The Mavs scored two runs in the first, three in the second and two more in the seventh.
Kaitlyn Flowers tossed all seven innings. She gave up seven runs, walked two, struck out two and hit one batter. She allowed two runs in the first and three in the second but worked the bottom of the zone after that to keep the Mavericks mostly beating the ball into the dirt or flying out.
In Glenville, taking advantage of two errors, two walks and hits off the bats of Taylor Wolf, Flowers and Cassandra Connor, the Clippers scored six runs in the second to get the party started. On walk and three errors in third, they made it 8-0.
The Knights rallied in the third for five runs off four hits and a couple of walks, but the Clippers kept the pressure on with three runs in the fourth and one in the fifth and sixth before blowing the game open in the seventh with 13 runs, including a grand slam off the bat of Lilly Lamont.
It was Lamont’s first varsity homer and the Clippers’ first grand slam since McKenna Robb bashed one out back in 2018 for a Clipper walk-off win against visiting Mountain Lake.
The Clippers pounded 14 hits, walked eight times, struck out eight times and took advantage of 10 Knight errors.
With two singles and a homer, Lilly Lamont led the charge, going three for four at the plate with six RBIs. She also walked twice. Schipper had a single and a double. Hollerich, Wolf and Flowers each hit two singles. With a base hit were Connor, Ava Hahn and Taylor McCabe.
Lilly Lamont pitched the first five innings. She surrendered eight hits, walked two, hit one batter and struck out nine. In relief, Flowers allowed two hits while striking out five and walking one in two innings in the circle. The Clippers committed a pair of errors.
Madelia comes to town on Thursday for the next Clipper outing.
Above, Laci Hollerich, penciled in at shortstop, stretches to field a throw to second during the MCW game.
Keira Schipper kept her hitting streak alive in the game vs MCW.
Greta Hahn at third makes a throw to first to put out a Maverick batter.
After the game, the Clipper varsity softball team recognized the summer youth leagues.