The Houston Lady Tigers’ offense never got going in its season opener.
Facing a hard-throwing right-hander from Hartville, the Lady Tigers managed just one hit Thursday afternoon in a 9-0 loss at Chamber Field to open the 2009 softball season.
“We weren’t starting our swings quickly enough,” second-year Houston coach Boulder McKinney said. “When you’ve got a pitcher on the mound throwing that hard, you’ve gotta be ready to go and be aggressive.”
The Lady Tigers (0-1) weren’t.
Lyndsay Tarrant’s second-inning bloop single was the lone hit for the Houston, which whiffed 14 times. Ten of the Lady Tigers’ first 11 outs were strikeouts. The lone exception was speedster Bethany Korte’s caught stealing after she walked leading off the third.
“She’s one of the better pitchers I’ve seen,” McKinney said of Hartville’s starter. “First game of the year, we had jitters and you face a pitcher like that, it’s tough.”
Hartville took an early lead with the aid of an odd play. With two outs and runners on second and third in the first, pitcher Hannah Pounds began her windup when the Hartville third-base coach yelled, ‘Wait, wait.’ Pounds stopped her motion, resulting in an illegal pitch and the game’s first run.
The next batter reached on an error and the floodgates opened. The next two batters tripled home runs, and a single made it 5-0.
McKinney said the illegal pitch hurt his team, but he didn’t blame the opposing coach.
“The (Hartville) coach apologized for that and was sorry for it. It wasn’t intentional,” McKinney said. “That’s not what lost the game.”
Pounds took the loss, giving up 13 hits and five earned runs in seven innings. She struck out six and walked none.
Houston managed two baserunners in the bottom of the second when Tarrants singled and Pounds walked. But a strikeout ended the inning.
Pounds reached on an error in the seventh and designated hitter Amber Honig was hit by a pitch with one out. They advanced into scoring position on Korte’s groundout, but No. 2 hitter Jessica Herndon grounded out to first base to end the game.
The Lady Tigers had seven baserunners – six reaching by walks. But only three runners made it to second base, and Houston never threatened to score.
“We’ve gotta be more aggressive. We watched way too many third strikes go by,” McKinney said. “Just fundamental, basic stuff we’ve got to work on.”
