South Warren pitcher Taylor Enlow saw her complete game shutout bid broken up in the top of the seventh, but the sophomore put together an overall solid performance in the Spartans’ 7-1 season-opening win against Barren County on Thursday night.
“She’s a young pitcher, and we’ve been saying all along that the defense has to back up your pitcher,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “I thought she did an excellent job. She hit her spots good, and she kept the batters in check for the most part.”
Enlow only finished with one strikeout on the day, but the Spartan defense was stellar outside of a couple errors in the seventh that ultimately broke up the complete game shutout—making plays such as nailing Barren County senior Hadleigh Hammer at the plate in the fifth, or tagging out Jordan Crist halfway between second and third base in the top of the sixth.
“(The defense) was good,” Reynolds said. “We’ve worked a lot on cuts and we’ve worked a lot on just playing smart ball: going for the out, and not necessarily going for the expected out. I thought they did a really good job of that.”
South Warren (1-0) begin the scoring in the bottom of the first as Madison Stumbo drove a pitch into left field to plate Alexis Isable. Isable had reached second base on an error with one out and advanced to third on a groundout by Jessica Bush before being chased in by Stumbo.
Neither team scored in the second, but South Warren blew the game wide open in the bottom of the third by scratching across four runs—the Spartans doing all of their damage with two outs.
Isable drew a two-out walk and stole second base before Bush smashed a double down the left field line to make the score 2-0. Stumbo followed with a single to score Bush to push the lead to three runs, and the Spartans led 5-0 at the end of the inning after Bush and Kaitlyn LaSala both came around to score around to score on back-to-back Trojanette errors. Barren County would finish with five errors on the night.
The Spartans pushed their advantage to 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth on a RBI double to deep center by Lauren Martin that plated Alexis Helderman.
Barren County (0-1) made a serious threat to break up the shutout in the top of the fifth as Hammer led off with a double for the Trojanettes. Sophomore Beka Haddix then laced a double to the outfield, but Hammer was called out at the plate.
The Trojanettes once again had a chance to break the ice in the top of the sixth when Crist opened up the inning with a two-bagger, but she was caught out between the bases as South Warren pushed its lead to 7-0 with an RBI groundout by Martin in the bottom half.
Eighth grader Allie Anderson thwarted Enlow’s complete game shutout hopes with an RBI groundout in the top of the seventh for the Trojanettes, who will look to pick up their first win of the season at home against Simon Kenton on Saturday if the weather permits.
Like Barren County, South Warren will also be at the mercy of Mother Nature this weekend as the Spartans are scheduled to play North Laurel and Trigg County in the Franklin-Simpson Lady Cat Classic at Buchanon Park on Friday night.
“We’re scheduled to play two games at Buchanon (Friday) night,” Reynolds said. “Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we get those in. Next week we have a full schedule—we start district games—so hopefully we’ll get in some of those before spring break.”
