Freshman Alicen Harris mashed the first home run of her high school career and led the Marshall County softball team to a 10-0 shutout of Trigg County on Tuesday in Draffenville, giving the Lady Marshals their second win in as many games to start the 2022 campaign.
Harris, who finished the night 3-for-3 with two runs scored, gave MCHS a jolt early with a two-run bomb that also plated Anna Vasseur and staked Marshall to a 3-0 advantage in the first inning. The Marshals then scored once in the second inning and once more in the bottom of the third, before exploding for five runs in the fifth to force a run-shortened contest.
It’s the first loss of the year for the Wildcats, who had won their first two games of the year by a combined total of 26-0. Avery Wade (2-1) lasted just three innings in the circle. She walked two, struck out a pair and was touched up for four earned on five hits in her first loss of the season.
Marshall County (2-0) got its first run when Charley Pursley reached on one of four TCHS errors to begin the bottom of the first inning and later reached home on a wild pitch. Three pitches later, Harris’ aforementioned blast put Trigg in a quick hole. Pursley (1-for-3, two runs) later added an RBI single to make it 4-0.
Sophomore Chloe Coursey delivered an RBI triple early in the fifth to spark the mercy rule-inducing frame. A few batters later, Vasseur’s two-out ground ball led to a two-run error on the ‘Cats, ending the game early.
Trigg County (2-1) did manage to bang out five hits in defeat. Eighth-grade leadoff hitter MaKenna Hendricks had two of them, including a two-out double in the top of the second inning. Hendricks would be stranded, though, after Marshall’s Tia Thorpe (1-0) got a ground ball out to end the threat.
Starting pitcher Thorpe walked one and scattered four hits during four innings of work. Gracelyn Darnall worked a one-hit inning in relief. Audrey Alexander, Kiley Slone and Avery Wade — the 7, 8 and 9 hitters for the Wildcats — each had a hit on the road.
