The Lady Scots softball team celebrates at home plate after Lindsay Locklear hits a three-run homer during the first inning of Friday night’s game against Pinecrest.
Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange
The Lady Scots and Pinecrest pray for Lady Scots JV softball player Anna Grace Adkins around the pitcher’s circle before the start of Friday night’s game. Adkins underwent surgery Friday morning and “has been facing some health complications,” according to a Facebook post from Chinna Hale.
Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange
The Lady Scots’ Addison Johnson slides onto second base as the ball hits her back during Friday night’s game against Pinecrest.
Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange
The Lady Scots’ Avery Stutts takes off her elbow padding after being walked during Friday night’s game against Pinecrest.
Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG — Coming into Friday night’s contest against the Pinecrest Patriots (6-11, 2-8 Sandhills Athletic Conference), the Lady Scots softball team (12-3, 9-0 SAC) hadn’t played a game in over two weeks — yet, they looked anything but rusty.
Three innings of six runs or more and a no-hitter thrown by pitcher Avery Stutts paced the way for the Lady Scots softball team, as they dominated the Patriots 20-0 in five innings and have now won their last three in-a-row.
“We did a different type of pitching with the cages and on field here because of the type of pitching we knew we were gonna see tonight,” Lady Scots head coach Adam Romaine said. “We did that yesterday to adjust…and I’ll tell you, the girls struck the ball well tonight.”
The offensive explosion for the Lady Scots started in the first inning with Addison Johnson and Dawson Blue already on first and second base; Lindsay Locklear would crush a ball to center field for a three-run homer and put the Lady Scots up 3-0.
In the next three at-bats, Madison Dixon, Sydnee Dial, and Stutts were all walked to load the bases, before Natalie Smith grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring home Dixon. Carleigh McKeithan kept the Lady Scots offense rolling with a 2-RBI ground ball to left field, which scored Dial and Stutts, and Smith added the final run of the inning on an RBI fly out to center field from Johnson.
“It was funny, he (Pinecrest coach Jesse Register) decided to throw the lefty against us tonight,” Romaine said. “I’m a left-hander so I throw a lot of BP (batting practice), along with coach (Neil) Smith, so I’ve been throwing some extra BP this week; it was just ironic. I was like ‘hey girls, you saw me all week, so this is right down your alley.’ They just jumped on it quick and put seven on the board in the first inning.”
After the Lady Scots scored the first four runs of the first with no outs though, Register pulled Addisyn Stayskal, his lefty pitcher, for his right-handed arm, Macey Jackson.
“We had to make an adjustment to the righty that we had seen before,” Romaine said. “And, once we made our adjustments, you can see what happened after that.”
The Lady Scots compiled another seven-run inning in the third, which was kick-started with a run from McKeithan, thanks to an error by Pinecrest third baseman Lauren Jefferson on a ground ball from Johnson. Another error from the Patriots, this time by second baseman Claire High, led to Kinsey Hamilton scoring on a ground ball from Blue, before an RBI single from Dixon brought in Blue, extending the Lady Scots lead to 11-0.
Dial notched a ground ball single to help Dixon score and, after Stutts hit a fly ball single, she scored from third on a line drive single from McKeithan. Smith closed the hot stretch for the Lady Scots, coming in to score on a ground ball single from Hamilton.
The Lady Scots had their final six runs of the game in the fourth-inning, with Blue scoring the first on a Ramsey Hale RBI single to left field to put the score at 15-0. One pitch later, Dial singled on a fly ball to right field to bring Locklear home from third for her second run of the night. Hale scored her first varsity run from Scott’s RBI single to second base to make the lead 17-0, and Johnson nailed a fly ball to right field for a single and a pair of RBI, after Stutts and Scott were both brought in. Chaslyn Clark had the final run of the game and completed the feat of every Lady Scot scoring at least one run in the game.
Johnson, Locklear, Dial, McKeithan, and Hamilton all had two hits each, and Blue Dixon, Hale, Stutts, Smith, and Scott had one. Locklear piled in 4 RBI, McKeithan and Johnson tallied three, and Dial recorded two, with every other player, minus Clark, having one.
Stutts pitched all five innings and struck out 11 batters.
Romaine discussed Stutts’ performance and how she was able to get the no-hitter.
“Proud of Avery Stutts on pitching a no hitter tonight,” Romaine said. “She kept her composure, even though, unfortunately, we had four fielding errors that allowed girls to get on in different innings of the game. Good thing is none of them came around to hurt us by advancing around to anymore bases in the game. Avery didn’t get flustered after each error and came right back to shut the next hitter down.”
It’s the second no-hitter of the season for Stutts, with the other one coming in a perfect game on March 31 against Hoke County.
Jackson suffered the loss for Pinecrest, allowing eight earned runs on 14 hits with two walks and four strikeouts in four innings pitched. Stayskal allowed four earned runs on two hits with four walks in 0 0/3 innings pitched.
The Lady Scots play again Monday at 6 p.m. at Southern Lee.
Reach Brandon Hodge at bhodge@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BrandonHSports.