Daviess County softball will look to advance to the final four of the state tournament when they take on the Lady Cats of Pendleton County.
The Lady Panthers are coming off an impressive comeback win over Ballard, handing them its fourth loss of the year by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh en route to a 2-1 victory.
Daviess County got another impressive performance from sophomore Raylee Roby in the circle, tossing a complete game and striking out four while trusting her defense behind her.
Along with Roby, Daviess County has another weapon in its pitching arsenal that could take to the circle in Greysee Whitaker, who has a 1.41 ERA in 26 appearances on the year.
Head Coach John Biggs Sr. said that whoever they choose to lead the charge in the circle will need to limit the free opportunities and continue to trust the defense that has been sound all season.
“The biggest thing that we want to do is limit their free passes,” Biggs Sr. said. “We don’t want to put kids on via the walk, so we’ll try to get ahead in the count and use their best pitches to try to get them to chase. But with our defense, as long as they’re putting the ball in play I feel very confident with the defense that we’re going to make the plays.”
Kayley Bruner has handled the bulk of the pitching responsibilities for Pendleton County this season, racking up 254 strikeouts in 139.2 innings while toting an ERA of 1.81 en route to an 18-6 record.
“Their pitcher is good,” Biggs Sr. said. “She probably throws low to mid 60s, likes to keep the ball up and run some balls in on you.”
Bruner is also a key contributor offensively, leading the team in batting average (.584), home runs (9) and RBIs (39). Along with Bruner, seven other teammates are hitting over .300, leaving no shortage of offense in the Lady Cats lineup.
Along with these high batting averages comes great small ball play. Biggs Sr. said that they’ve been working on their own bunting while practicing these situations in the field to best prepare themselves defensively.
“The other day we did some bunting drills where we were actually working on our bunting, but then at the same time working on our bunt defense,” Biggs Sr. said. “On the bunt defense it’s really no different than what we’ve been doing all year, [which is] making a strong emphasis on the communication because we can get the lead runner we really want to do that, but if that’s not the case then we have to communicate and go on and get the out at first base.”
Meanwhile, the Lady Panthers have continually found success as of late through a patient and calculated approach at the plate.
Biggs Sr. said this has to be a key focus, as chasing pitches lead to short at-bats and easy outs for Daviess County.
“That’s gotta be our mindset because if we chase out of the zone then we’re either going to not hit balls or we’re going to hit balls that are easy to make a play on,” Biggs Sr. said. “If we can look for pitches and find that she’s trying to get ahead early in the count then we might try to zero in on some of those earlier pitches.”
Daviess County will look to apply pressure on the defense with quality bats all game long when they take on Pendleton County at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, at 2 p.m.
“It’s kind of been what we’ve seen all year,” Biggs Sr. said. “Pretty sure what we’re going to get defensively and pretty sure what we’re going to get in the circle. If we can get production all up and down that lineup then I think that’s going to put us in a situation where we can be successful.”
