YSE File Photo
In a meeting of early-season unbeaten, it was Madisonville-North Hopkins that came out victorious Monday, as the host Maroons limited a red-hot Christian County squad and used a late surge of offense to earn a 9-2 home victory.
Sophomore pitcher Mackenzie Stoltz (4-0) fanned 13 Colonels and scattered five hits during six innings of work in the circle. She also hit one of three Maroon home runs during the win, which halted County’s three-game winning streak. Brenna Sherman blasted the other two homers, giving her four in four games and helping MNHHS win its fourth game in a row.
The Maroons jumped ahead on Sherman’s solo shot in the first inning, but the Cols — who had just one batter reach base during the first three innings — finally broke through in the top of the fourth, when Karlee Crick and Gracie Harned hit back-to-back doubles to tie the game at 1-all. The score wouldn’t stay that way for long, though, as Alarryia Jones’ two-run single in the bottom half gave the Maroons a 3-1 advantage and the lead for good.
Christian County did get within 3-2 in the fifth when Jada Turner delivered a lead-off single and later scored on Madisonville’s lone error of the night, but the Colonels would get no closer. With two runners on, Stoltz got Harned to pop out to escape the jam relatively unscathed.
Harned (2-1) struck out four, walked four, gave up five hits and allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings to suffer her first loss of the season. She was charged a pair of those runs when Madisonville-North Hopkins struck for a total of six in its final at-bat. Sherman’s two-run bomb made it 7-2; two batters later, Stoltz launched one to make it 9-2, capping a six-run sixth inning.
The Colonels, who had won their first three games by a combined score of 39-3, were limited to just six hits. In addition to the doubles by Crick and Harned, Avery Adcock also hit a two-bagger — her fifth extra-base hit of the year — in the loss. Adcock and Crick both had two hits each.
Madisonville (4-0) will play again Tuesday at Owensboro Catholic. Christian County (3-1) will look to get back on track when it hosts Caldwell County at 6 p.m. The Tigers defeated Union County 10-6 on Monday to run their record to 3-1.
