BROOKSVILLE — Ella Johnson and her Bracken County teammates had thought about this day for quite some time.
Some revenge on Mason County.
It may only be a regular season game this time around, but the Lady Bears were able to get some revenge on the Lady Royals with a 4-1 victory on Friday in Brooksville.
Circle back to Memorial Day 2021, it was Mason County that ended Bracken’s season in the district tournament.
“I always think about the district game. I always have that in the back of my mind. So every time I think about Mason County, that’s all I think about. I just want to win against them,” Johnson said.
Sixteen strikeouts and a home run later, Johnson did her part. The home run was to dead center with the wind blowing in.
“I thought it was too high,” Johnson said. “I really didn’t think it was going out. And then it went over. It kind of shocked me.”
By that time she had worked eight strikeouts and didn’t allow a hit through three.
Mason County finally put a few on the bags in the fourth, Shelby Thompson and Stevie Foley with a pair of back-to-back singles, but Johnson got Reese Hardeman to ground out to end the threat.
Tabitha Sapp had worked through some trouble in the early innings and was a strike away from doing so again in the fourth, but Gracie Ramsey took a 3-2, two out pitch to left center for a two-run double.
She had fouled a couple pitches off, worked the count and picked her spot.
“You see the pitch and get your timing down,” Ramsey said. “It helped seeing those pitches.”
Maddie Johnson added a RBI via a groundout in the fifth for some more insurance for the Lady Bears to make it 4-0.
The Lady Royals added another two-out threat in the fifth with two runners on, but Johnson worked through the trouble with a strikeout.
“That’s at least the third game now where we’re a hit away from that big inning. But Ella is a great pitcher and we were behind the fastball tonight a lot. We’re a work in progress and once those hits start coming around in those moments we’ll start to see some more positive moments,” Lady Royals coach Brian Littleton said.
The lone dent the Lady Royals accomplished in the runs category was a Hardeman sacrifice fly to left to make it 4-1 in the sixth.
Johnson did the rest from there, striking out three of the final four batters she faced, finishing with 16 K’s and allowing just two hits. She ended a busy week with a bang, the Lady Bears playing four games in which Johnson threw 448 pitches in those four games.
“We need to shore up the defense for her. We need to quit giving up unearned runs because we’re putting a lot of pressure on her where she feels she needs to strike everybody out,” Lady Bears coach Tony Green said. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s a workhorse, but you can only ride that horse so much. She can do it though, she goes to a pitching lesson, practices for two hours with us and then wants to go to the batting cage She’s willing to put in the work.”
The two are now what seems light years away from playing again, their next matchup not coming until May 13, by that time they’ll know who is playing who in the district tournament, maybe it will be each other again come late May.
“I’d rather play 30 games like this and and lose half four to one then to lose 10 or 20 to 1. You get better with games like this. Bracken County is a great team and that’s who we’re going to have to beat to win district,” Littleton said. “We’re just focused on getting a little better each day right now.”
LADY BEARS 4, LADY ROYALS 1
MASON COUNTY — 000-001-0 — 1-2-2
BRACKEN COUNTY — 001-210-x — 4-4-3
2B — (BC) Ramsey, Ahrens
HR — (BC) Johnson
RBI — (BC) Ramsey 2, E. Johnson, M. Johnson (MC) Hardeman
WP — E. Johnson. LP — Sapp.
Records: Mason County 1-5, Bracken County 2-2
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