Sports

Lady Dukes Softball Shuts out Heritage

Reporter Leighann Harper

On Tuesday, March 19th, our very own varsity girls softball team completely wrecked Heritage with a 35-0 win. Pitcher Mackenzie Smith threw a perfect game and was awarded with the very ball she used to whip it in there.

Heritage maintained good sportsmanship while being handed the “L”. Lady Dukes were ecstatic for the win, but also dreading the 30 minute long innings, dying for their opponent to make three outs. Eventually, the girls started stepping off the bags early to help them out. For those who don’t know, base runners are only allowed to leave the base after the pitcher has released the ball. Once the fifth inning was reached, the ump called out, “ball game!”. The Lady Dukes had made it to the fifth inning at last, and Heritage had been run ruled, which means that the Dukes had scored enough runs before the fifth inning to end the game.

Bridget Motley, starting catcher and leadoff batter, hit four home runs throughout the game. The team was elated to see her bring in runs and round third for a fourth time. She stated that, “Their pitchers put in a great effort; however, their pitches were much slower than what everyone on our team is used to. Therefore, as a team we all had to adjust our swing and wait on the ball”. Motley also stated that there was “no spin on the ball”, which made it easier to load back on her swing and drive it into the outfield. As far as the other team’s defense goes, Bridget stated that she feels “confident when baserunning” because “in most cases, the coach puts in a pinch runner for the catcher, but [she] is fortunate enough to run for [her]self”.

In a game as vigorously slow as the Dukes- Heritage game, the umpires will, in most cases, attempt to speed up the game by making the strike zone bigger (calling pitches strikes that would normally be balls). According to Motley, she believes confidently “that the umpires were attempting to speed the game up. When Gloucester was up to bat, the strike zone got bigger.”

Sophomore James Turner stated that the game “started out aggressive, our players jumped on Heritage quick, they couldn’t keep up. I definitely think if they hadn’t started stepping off the base, we would have gone for at least another hour.”

Both teams are ready to compete again for their follow up game on Friday, March 22nd. However Gloucester may secretly be dreading for the same slow paced competition as before. After all, a win is a win, no matter the score.