By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent 

The Union County Bravettes faced off against the Webster County Lady Trojans in the Semifinals of the 6th District softball tournament in Henderson.

The Bravettes were the first to score in the game as in the top of the 2nd inning sophomore center fielder Leah Hunley hit a fly ball and reached on an error as sophomore Ava Arnett scored and gave Union County a 1-0 lead.

Bravettes would strike again in the top of the 4th inning with sophomore third baseman Ava Arnett hitting a double that scored 1 run and gave Union County a 2-0 lead over the Lady Trojans. Then Bravettes sophomore pitcher Peyton Jenkins walked and then sophomore center fielder Leah Hunley hit a single to left field that scored another run to give the Bravettes a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 4th.

Bravettes would strike in the top of the 5th inning scoring on a 1 out ground out to give Union County a 4-0 lead over the Lady Trojans.

A 1 out RBI single from Bravettes freshman first baseman Jaylen Tackett scored another run to give Union County a 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 5th inning. 

In the bottom of the 6th inning the Lady Trojans would get on the board with a 2 run home run shot to center field by sophomore pitcher Chloe Papineau to narrow the deficit to 5-2 heading into the top of the 7th inning. In the 7th neither team would score as the Bravettes would upset the Lady Trojans 5-2. The Lady Trojans season comes to a rough close as they finish with a (15-10) record while the Bravettes improve to (15-17) on the season. 

Bravettes sophomore third baseman Ava Arnett was 4 for 4 with 1 double and 1 RBI while freshman catcher Ashlynn Hargrove was 3 for 3 on the night.

 

As a team, the Bravettes scored 5 runs and recorded 11 hits, 4 RBI’s, 1 double, and 3 stolen bases on the night. 

 

The Lady Trojans had 6 different players with 1 hit each with Chloe going 1 for 2 with the 2 run home run that drove in 2 runs. 

 

As a team, the Lady Trojans scored 2 runs and recorded 6 hits, 2 RBI’s, and 1 home run on the night.

 

Winning pitcher for the Bravettes sophomore Peyton Jenkins pitched the full 7 innings giving up 6 hits and 2 runs while only walking 1 batter and striking out 3 batters on the night.

 

The player of the game was Bravettes sophomore pitcher Peyton Jenkins who pitched a solid game in their 5-2 win over the Lady Trojans. Jenkins talked about her performance and her team’s performance on the night, “I feel like we all came out ready to play and beat them. I came out to hit my spots and they had to find a great defense behind me to make plays.” 

 

Union County Bravettes head coach Taner Fowler talked about her observations on the big win on the night, “I think we played great, super proud of them. Coming into this game we had a few games that didn’t go our way in the last inning, we weren’t closing the door and finishing. I kind of challenged them tonight to do that and to focus on it’s a team sport but at the end of the day if you focus on the small things that you’re responsible for your team is more successful. I challenged them to take care of their role on the team and know their role and know what we need to do to win and they responded well. We’ve had a great couple of practices, really came together as a team so I’m proud of them.”

 

Webster County Lady Trojans head coach Jason Scott talked about his team’s performance on the tough loss on the night, “Same thing we’ve struggled with for the last month. Waiting too late to get started hitting (the ball) and it got us again. I’ve been talking to them about it and trying to overcome it and we never did and it ended up getting us.”

 

The Bravettes will face the Lady Colonels tomorrow night, Tuesday night May 2nd, in Henderson at 5:30 P.M. for the 6th District Tournament Championship barring a postponement due to rain.