East coach Tom Hamm spoke to his team after a 10-0 loss to Allen County-Scottsville on Thursday in the first round of the state tournament. (Photo by Jonathan Kleppinger) |
OWENSBORO – East Jessamine began its quest for a state title on Thursday night against Allen County-Scottsville. The Lady Jags did not get off to the perfect start that the Lady Patriots did as ACS pitcher Kelsi Pardue threw a perfect game against East.
Backing Pardue was the Lady Pats offense, which scored 10 runs to win 10-0 in six innings.
“We came out flat, played without emotion, which is exactly the opposite of how we played in the region,” East coach Tom Hamm said. “I was trying to tell them it was a game you had to get up for.”
East Jessamine pitcher Bethany Davis lasted four and one-third innings and was charged with eight runs on seven hits. She struggled with control, walking five batters and hitting two. With East trailing 7-0, Hamm pulled Davis to save her arm for Friday’s game, and Haylee Hamm took over in the circle. She allowed two runs on four hits in an inning and one-third. The East defense did not have a 1-2-3 inning all night.
“Bethany had an off day, but it wouldn’t have mattered if Bethany had a perfect day. If you have no hits, you can’t win a game,” coach Hamm said.
Allen County took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning and tacked on two more runs in the third. Four more runs in the bottom of the fourth by the Lady Pats made it 7-0, and two more runs in the fifth put them on the verge of short-gaming East.
With two outs in the sixth, the Lady Pats added one final run to end the game early.
Of the 18 batters East sent to the plate, 11 struck out.
“We didn’t play with emotion, and this team (East) feeds off emotion and heart and didn’t play that way today,” Hamm said. “I think it was a little bit of it was nerves. You could just tell from the way the girls’ body language was.”
Due to the heat index being too high, both teams had to take a 10-minute break every 30 minutes.
East Jessamine will play Montgomery County at noon EST on Friday in the losers’ bracket. Montgomery County lost to PRP 9-0 on Thursday. The Lady Jags beat the Indians 3-1 on May 9.
