Calhoun Softball Drops League Opener

For four innings, the Calhoun Lady Colts dominated visiting Plainview JFK in their League AA-11 softball opener Tuesday, running up a 5-2 lead and holding down an opponent which had moved down from a bigger league, with strong pitching and nearly flawless defense in the field.

Unfortunately for the Colts, however, a softball game is seven innings long, not four – and in the fifth, the wheels came off their game. Plainview came back in the top of the inning, putting ten runs on the board and staying on top for the remainder of the game to post a 16-5 victory.

We had a couple of good innings there,” said Jason Boland, coach, after the game. “Coming out of the gate, I was happy. Unfortunately, they came back on us in the fifth – they’re a good hitting team. A couple of balls fell in, and we started to lose focus. We need to learn how to stay on our toes, even if it’s a long inning, and come back from it when that happens.”

In fact, Plainview was first out of the box, scoring a run in the first inning on a triple – and it took a double play for Calhoun to get out of it. After that, the game was tight and close, with neither team scoring until the bottom of the third when the Lady Colts scratched and scraped for four runs on a lot of little ball plus a clean double by Danielle Losee.

Plainview retaliated in the fourth with a run and, with the bases loaded and two outs, threatened to put a few more on the board. Jessica Livingston shut the rally down from the mound, pitching her way out of trouble with a strike out to end the half inning.

And L.T. Trimarco picked her team up in the bottom of the inning with a hard hit to right center that was still rolling as she rounded third for a solo home run.

The fifth inning, however, proved to be the Lady Colts’ undoing. After a ground out to open the inning, Plainview put two runners on, and after a force out put runners on second and third with two away, and the wheels started spinning. A two run triple started off an eight-hit barrage, punctuated by errors in the field and capped with a two RBI home run, before Calhoun mercifully got out of the inning with a fly out.

For the Lady Colts, it was the end of the day – there was little more production from the plate, and while they were able to do a little more to contain the Plainview offense, four more runs crossed the plate and Calhoun went down to defeat.

Despite the loss, the Calhoun coach held out hope for the team. “I feel like we can compete in this league,” said Boland. “We had four great innings – now we have to learn how to finish.”

The next chance for the Lady Colts to test that proposition will be at Herricks on April 1 at 4:30 p.m.