By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent 

The Union County Bravettes faced off against the Webster County Lady Trojans in a 6th District Rivalry Game in Dixon.

The Lady Trojans were the first to score in the game as in the bottom of the 1st inning junior first baseman Jenna Shelley hit a double on a fly ball to center field as at the end of the 1st inning the Lady Trojans would lead the Bravettes 1-0. 

In the top of the 3rd inning, Bravettes freshman center fielder Audrey Staley hit a ground ball to shortstop that was a RBI single to tie the game at 1-1 headed to the bottom of the 3rd inning. 

In the top of the 5th inning, the Bravettes would score on a groundout hit by sophomore shortstop Leah Hunley to give them a 2-1 lead over the Lady Trojans. 

In the top of the 6th inning, the Bravettes would get on the board again with an RBI double from freshman catcher Ashlynn Hargrove to give the Bravettes a 3-1 lead headed into the bottom of the 6th inning. 

Then in the bottom of the 7th inning, sophomore outfielder Kennedy Warren would pinch hit for left fielder Karsyn Cates and Warren would hit a leadoff double for the Lady Trojans as the tying run would come up to the plate. Senior center fielder Katelyn Cates and junior catcher Mallory Leath would both back to back be hit by a pitch and would load the bases for sophomore pitcher Chloe Papineau. Papineau on a 3-2 count would hit a high fly ball to deep left center field and hit a walk-off grand slam to give the Lady Trojans the 5-3 victory over the Bravettes. Lady Trojans improve to (13-3) on the season while the Bravettes fall to (14-9). 

 

Lady Trojans players with some notable stats was sophomore pitcher Chloe Papineau who was 2 for 3 with the home run and 4 RBI’s while junior first baseman Jenna Shelley was 2 for 3 with 1 RBI and 1 double on the night. Sophomore pitcher Chloe Papineau gave up 7 hits and 3 runs while allowing 1 walk and recording 3 strikeouts.

 

As a team, the Lady Trojans scored 5 runs and recorded 6 hits, 5 RBI’s, 3 doubles, and 1 home run on the night.

 

Bravettes freshman catcher Ashlynn Hargrove was 2 for 3 with a double and 1 RBI on the night. As a team, the Bravettes recorded 7 hits, 3 RBI’s, and 1 stolen base on the night. 

 

The player of the game was Lady Trojans sophomore pitcher Chloe Papineau with a walk-off grand slam to give her team the 5-3 victory over 6th district rival in the Bravettes. Papineau talked about her performance on the night, especially the walk-off home run game winner, “I was just looking to get it somewhere on the ground, just get 1 or 2 runs in, but I had a pretty good outcome. I knew it was going to be hard because Peyton Jenkins is (a) great (pitcher). I was just looking to get something on the ground, get a base hit.”

 

Webster County Lady Trojans head coach Jason Scott talked about his team’s performance on the night, “We were just slow hitting to start. Didn’t come up with the timely hits, that’s kind of what we’ve been doing we’ve been working on it. (We’ve) Hit a few hard shots right at people, haven’t had a lot of luck lately. We were down 3-1 that last inning, I pulled them to the side, I asked them to show me their hearts, show me what they were made of. They battled and took it. I put Kennedy Warren in as the first batter (of the bottom of the 7th) as a substitution and she was looking for a shot and she answered. First pitch she almost took it out, hit it off the fence and that kind of got the rally going, opened it up. We had a couple of hit by pitches to load the bases up and then Chloe (Papineau) was just clutch, she battled to a full count. They pitched around her twice, walked her twice, that time they pretty well had to throw to her and she had a big hit and won it for us. I’m proud of all of them.”

 

Union County Bravettes head coach Taner Fowler talked about her observations on the night, “I thought we came out and we played a better game than we did our first game (against the Lady Trojans). We executed things that we needed to execute. We had great plays on defense. They put our backs against the wall, loaded the bases, put base runners on and we responded each time so I was proud of them for that. Sometimes the last inning or couple of innings just don’t go exactly how we want and that one just kind of fell the other way which is fine, you know that’s part of it, that’s how it goes.”

 

Lady Trojans will face the Lady Colonels again on Tuesday night May 2nd in Henderson at 6:00 P.M.