Lady Bearcats advance

By Michael A. Cummings
michaelc@cullmantimes.com

May 07, 2008 12:06 am

— Way back at the beginning of the softball season, Abbie Knight received a bit of advice from Cullman coach Marc Ponder. When facing slow-pitch style pitchers, coach advised, pray for rain.
Such was Knight’s inability to hit a slowly-pitched softball at the beginning of the year, Ponder joked, it probably would’ve been better to close her eyes and swing.
So when the Lady Bearcats came up against Erwin and its stable of low-velocity pitchers in the sub-state playoffs Tuesday, the last person you would’ve expected to hit a home run might have been Knight.
But Cullman’s freshman left fielder mashed two in the first three innings Tuesday, leading the offense as the Lady Bearcats strolled to a pair of easy wins over Erwin.
“Coach told me at the beginning of the year that I’m not a slow-pitch hitter,” said Knight after Cullman swept the Lady Eagles.“I didn’t think I was going to hit it out.”
It turns out Knight got some more advice before her first at-bat — this time from her own teammates.
“I didn’t think about it too much — my friends told me not to think about it,” Knight said. “I just went up there and did it.”
That first at-bat ended up with a softball-shaped dent in the roof of the field house out in left field. Knight’s homer from the eight spot in the order capped a six-run first and sent the Lady Bearcats on their way to an 18-0 win.
When she came up again in the third, the situation was pretty much the same for Knight. Jenny Haney had hit a triple to left and had scored on a sacrifice fly by McKenzie Fetner — just like it happened in the first inning.
So it was only appropriate for Knight to follow suit, bouncing another slow one off the top of the fieldhouse for the second time on the day.
“I think we did a good job making adjustments and getting ahead (in counts),” Ponder said after his team won game two 13-0 to complete the sweep. “That was the scouting report we got when we heard we were going to play Erwin, that their pitching is slow.”
Not that Ponder’s team needed much of a scouting report. Knight, Haney and Alison Meriwether each had three hits and three RBIs, and Cassie Gable topped them all with a four-hit, four-run day. Lacey Cork and Erin Lopez each had two more hits and T.J. Huddleston added a hit and a run.
And before Ponder emptied the bench after a 13-run first inning in game two, Gable, Lopez, Huddleston, Meriwether and Haney all had two more runs, ensuring Ponder could give some younger players some varsity action.
Elizabeth Buchanan got the win in game one, pitching four innings of one-hit ball. She struck out seven. Kayla Dean finished up with a hitless fifth.
Emilee Segroves went four scoreless innings in game two and Jennifer Jenkins tossed a perfect fifth to end it.
The Lady Bearcats will host Decatur Saturday in the second round of sub-state tournament action. The Lady Raiders advanced to the second round behind a pair of victories over Southside-Gadsden. Decatur edged the opener 1-0 and won the nightcap 7-1.