CC girls eyeing MSC title

Visiting Scottsburg jumped out to an early 2-0 lead yesterday afternoon, but the team would need more offense than that to hold off a surging Corydon Central ball club.
The Lady Panthers tied the Mid-Southern Conference contest in the bottom of the second inning and added five more runs in the third and three in the fourth to knock off the Warriorettes, 10-2.
Extra efforts at the plate, on the basepaths and in the field were the deciding factor in the affair, which kept Corydon’s hopes of a league title alive.
‘Great teams take advantage of other teams’ mistakes and we did that,’ Lady Panther coach J.R. Drummond said. ‘We came out and kind of threw away that first part of the game. I had a little heart-to-heart talk with them real quick and told them, ‘Girls, don’t throw away your chance to win conference tonight’ and we tied it and went up on them.’
Scottsburg’s only runs came in the top of the opening stanza, when Kelly Dwyer singled, Renee Cochran walked and both were driven in on a two-RBI single by Emily Smith.
Corydon tied the affair in the bottom of the second.
Senior Dana Beaven was hit on the first delivery from Smith and Leslie Radcliff, another senior, blasted a single.
Junior Katie Robson laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, and senior Cassie Mathews hit a sacrifice fly to bring in both of her teammates.
Beaven beat the throw home from the outfield and Radcliff used heads-up base-running to cross the plate. After the ball bounced away from Scottsburg’s catcher, Radcliff churned her way home to tie the game.
‘That was smart softball. When you make smart, routine plays, you beat a lot of teams and that was a good job on (Radcliff’s) part,’ Drummond said.
The Lady Panthers took the lead for good in the bottom of the next inning.
Sharon Brown, who has signed to play softball at Georgetown College next season, drew a one-out walk. Seniors Sam Fessel and Chrissy Crecelius each singled, with Crecelius’ knocking in Brown.
Fessel scored on a wild pitch and Beaven reached on an error to move sophomore Amber Morris (who was pinch-running for Crecelius) to third.
Radcliff marked the RBI with a sacrifice fly.
‘When you leave base-runners on, it loses you a lot of games. Great teams take advantage of extra outs and that’s what we got in that big inning,’ Drummond said.
Corydon pushed its record to 10-6 while Fessel improved to 8-5.
The Lady Panthers have a busy week ahead.
The club travels to Jeffersonville today (Wednesday), to Austin in another M.S.C. matchup tomorrow, and to Henryville on Friday for a double-header.
On Monday, Corydon Central hosts the make-shift championship game of the Harrison County Tournament against Lanesville and then, on Tuesday, the team hosts Brownstown in what’s expected to be the championship game of the M.S.C.
‘It’s a tough way to end the season, but I think it will help us. In football, we play some bad teams going into the sectional and I think it hurts us. Playing Lanesville and Brownstown will be a good test for us,’ Drummond, an assistant football coach, said. ‘I think we’ll have to really be on top of our game to beat Austin and Brownstown. We can’t just give those games away. We’re too close right now.’