By Blain Click
CV&T Sports Reporter
Freshman Lauren Farmer begins the celebration after producing the game winning hit in a recent 3-2 victory over Clark County.
Lady Engineers win three of four on the week.
The Lady Engineers are starting to play some of their best softball of the season down the stretch as they prepare for the district tournament on the week of May 20th. The week started with a blowout of district foe, Lee County on Monday April 15th. Emma Winkle was on the mound for the Neers and she pitched a jewel. Winkle went seven innings allowing zero runs, only four hits, two base-on-balls and 12 strikeouts as she threw 75 strikes of her 103 pitches. Not only did Winkle pitch a gem, she led the Neers with three RBI’s on three hits in three plate appearances on the day. Eighth grader Maci Muncie knocked in two as well followed by Mo Riddell, Mia Hale, and Amelia Farmer who each drove in a run on the day. Amelia Farmer continued her surge down the stretch going 2-4 and scoring a run. As she continues to get healthier, Farmer consequently continues to heat up at the plate as the season progresses. The Engineers netted 10 runs on the day, but it took seven innings for a change as they won by a score of 10-0 in their first district game of the season that wasn’t won by mercy rule. Lee County continues to improve under coach Paul Samples but fell to 5-7 on the season.
The Neers came back on Tuesday night to face the Lions of Garrard County who whipped the Neers earlier in the season. Estill fell behind early in this one as Garrard took the early 3-0 lead on a homer by Katy Pozzuto. The Lions added another run in the third and another in the fourth to go up 5-0 before Engineers got the train rolling. Estill scored on an RBI from Newton in the fifth and then scored four more in the bottom of the sixth on RBI’s from Savannah Newton and Henlee Hunter and a homerun by freshman Mo Riddell to tie the score at five in the bottom of the sixth. Garrard was shocked by the upstart Neers who were defeated soundly 11-0 in Lancaster only one month earlier, but the Lions shook it off and came back to score two in the top of the seventh to win by a score of 7-5. Lauren Farmer went three innings for Estill County giving up seven hits and five earned runs while striking out two. Winkle came on in the fourth to pitch four innings allowing zero earned runs on three hits and striking out two. Garrard County improved to 16-4 on the season as they vie for a 12th region crown. Mo Riddell was the big stick for the Engineers going 2-4 on the day with three RBI’s including going yard in the Neer’s sixth inning rally. On the day, Estill compiled nine hits in the loss.
The four seniors left for the senior trip on Wednesday, but the Lady Engineers kept playing as they faced an old 40th district rival GRC at JL Thomas Field. Estill County started one player older than a freshman against the 10th region school with 1900 enrollment. This was a clean game of pitching and defense from the start as neither team scored until Estill knotted a deuce in the bottom of the fourth on some “small ball”. Hot hitting Mo Riddell led off with a single followed by a walk to Savannah Newton. Riddell then stole third and Newton stole second in subsequent pitches to put Estill in scoring position. Riddell would eventually score on a wild pitch and Newton on a throwing error as Estill took the lead 2-0 after four. GRC would tie the game in the top of the sixth and almost took the lead but a bang bang tag out call at home on a passed ball kept the Engineers ahead and also got GRC coach Daniel Rogers tossed for arguing the call. The score would remain 2-2 until the bottom of the seventh when Rayleigh Jones led off with a perfect bunt single then stole second and alertly advanced to third on the wild throw to second bringing up freshman Lauren Farmer for some final heroics. On a 1-1 count, Famer goes with the pitch and lined one hard into left center field scoring Jones on the walk off single. Winkle pitched a gem going seven complete giving up eight hits but only one earned run while striking out six Cardinal batters. Clark fell to 9-10 on the season while Estill moved to 10-8 on the year.