Owensboro Catholic got on the board with a pair of runs in the first inning and used a steady approach to get past Owensboro in Tuesday’s softball game at Shifley Park.
Aside from a four-run fifth inning, the Lady Aces (3-2) were only able to tack on runs sparingly against a much-improved Lady Devils (0-3) team.
Hannah Latham went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in two runs to lead the Catholic offense, which also got a pair of hits from Taylor Dukate and Hadley Phelps. Ann Meyer scored twice.
Coming in off a pair of losses, Lady Aces head coach Jeremy Phelps said staying focused was the biggest emphasis for his team.
“They made some nice adjustments there in the middle of the game,” he said. “They worked on it first at-bat, second at-bat. They got better throughout the game, so I like that part.”
Catholic added one run in the second inning and another in the fourth before doubling their lead in the fifth. A final score in the seventh put them up 9-0 heading into the last half-inning.
Rather than just roll over, though, Owensboro put up three runs with an aggressive approach on offense. Head coach Bryan Smith was happy they didn’t give up.
“They just plugged away, some good hits, aggressive base running,” he said.
Kaylyn Sowders, who turned a double play after snagging a line drive in the top half of the inning, got on base then scored the first run for the Lady Devils on a single by Lindsey Gibson. Bailey McCalister used a triple to drive in Hadley Hughes and Makayla McKannan.
It’s the closest Owensboro has played a district opponent since they beat the Lady Aces in the 2014 district tournament.
“I can at least walk out of here today saying if we clean up a few errors, it’s a pretty good competitive ball game,” he said. “It’s been a lot of years since we had one of those with our district opponents.”
The Lady Devils now turn attention to another district foe, as Owensboro finishes a four-game home stand by hosting Apollo on Thursday before heading to Florida for a tournament during spring break.
Catholic is off the rest of the week, and they’ll also head to Florida for their annual tournament. Phelps said it’s always a fun trip, and he hopes it will prepare the team for the rest of the year.
“They put in a lot of work all offseason, so it’s like their reward,” he said. “At the same time, we get nicer weather, so we can go down there and get some more practice time in and get some more games in. We come back from it, and the schedule really gets demanding.”
OCHS 210-140-1—9-11-1
OHS 000-000-3—3-5-5
WP: Phelps. LP: Schueler. 2B: I. Henning (OCH), Schueler, Sowders (O). 3B: McCallister (O).
