Lady Royals lose out to Boyd County despite promising lead

The Mason County Lady Royals softball team travelled to Boyd County to take on the Lady Lions on Saturday.

Mason County was in charge of the game at the beginning. The Lady Royals held the Lady Lions to zero at the bottom of the first, after putting three runs up in the top of the first. Mason County continued to hold the Lady Lions back throughout the second and third innings, and pull ahead offensively.

Boyd County was unable to score a run during any of the first three innings, and Mason County continued to pull away.

The Lady Royals scored two more runs in the top of the second, after a hard double from Marcella Gifford to center field, bringing home Kennadi Kirk, AND Olivia Hughes, to bring the Lady Royals lead up to 5-0.

The Lady Lions were falling behind, but that wasn’t due to a lack of trying. The Boyd County fielders were working hard to get outs on the base line before the Lady Royals could score, but weren’t able to keep up with them early on in the game. In the top of the third, Mason County put two more runs on the board, to lead 7-0 heading into the bottom of the third.

“We came out and we hit the ball. and all of our runs were earned runs, they didn’t give us much, so hitting the ball has been great. In the third or fourth inning whatever it was we didn’t defend like we need to, we’ve got great pitching, but we don’t have dominating pitching. They’re going to hit our pitcher, so we need to make the plays that we need to make.” said Lady Royals head coach, Brian Littleton.

The Lady Royals had built up a pretty secure lead, but Boyd County wasn’t about to let them walk away with the win.

“They brought in their stud pitcher in I think the fifth inning, but we stopped hitting the ball, the inning they scored their seven runs, we walked the first couple of batters and then they got a couple of hits and an error here and there will allow them to score more runs and that’s exactly what happened.” said coach Littleton

The Lady Lions scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning alone. After getting their defense under control and limiting their errors, Boyd County began to take control of the game quickly. The Lady Lions held Mason County to zero in the top of the fourth, which allowed Boyd County’s explosive offense to come out and nearly tie the game.

The next inning would go very similarly for the Lady Royals. They were unable to pull back ahead of the Lady Lions, and Boyd County continued to put more runs on the board. Boyd County would pull ahead of the Lady Royals in the bottom of the fifth, leading 8-7 heading into the top of the sixth.

Mason County would make their eighth and final run in the top of the sixth, after Marcella Gifford hit a fly ball to left field, which was caught by Makenna Mulhearn for the out. Kenzie Gulley was able to make it home on the hit, to tie the game 8-8 heading into the bottom of the inning. Boyd County swung hard at the plate this inning and put up three more runs. The Lady Lions led 11-8 heading into the top of the seventh.

Mason County gave it every thing they had in the top of the final inning, but were unable to bring any runners home. Boyd County pulled the game out after an explosive fourth inning, and won 11-8.

“I am tickled to death where our softball program is right now. We’re not where we want to be, but where we were this time last year and where we’re at now is night and day. We’re competing. Six of our first eight games last year we were run ruled, this was one of the teams that run ruled us, and our last game at bath county we were run ruled, so to compete with them and get to the last inning and have a chance to win, is where we want this program to be.” said coach Littleton.

Although the Lady Royals lost control over the game, coach Littleton was pleased with how the team played and kept their heads up as the final innings went by. The Lady Royals are 3-4 so far this season, beating out Elliot County, St. Pat and Paris, and losing to Boyd, Bath, Campbell and East Carter. The Lady Royals might not be a dominant team just yet, but coach Littleton believes that his team will get there, they just need to continue to practice.The Lady Royals want to be unstoppable. Coach Littleton wants to make them unstoppable.

“We have a quite a bit of optional workouts throughout the winter, which we’ve really got them up in the cage and our hitting has gotten a lot better, and we’ve hit thousands and thousands of ground balls to them in the gym, and we’ve worked on our throwing as well. That’s how we’ve gotten better, we’ve put in hard work in the off season, and continued to work as the season started in February.” said Littleton.

The Lady Royals will take the field again on Tuesday, heading to Carter County to take on the West Carter Lady Comets.

LADY ROYALS 8, LADY LIONS 11

2B (MC)Hardeman, Thompson, Gifford (BC) Goad, Shivel 2, Kouns

R (MC) Gulley 2, Kirk 2, Sapp, Hardeman, Hughes (BC) Kouns 2, Stephens, Simpkins, Goad 3, Shivel, Gilbert, Henderson, Bays, Hamilton, Sparks

RBI (MC) Gifford 5, Thompson 2 (BC) Kouns, Simpkins, Goad, Shivel 2, Gilbert, Bays 2, Mulhearn, Hamilton

RECORDS Mason County 3-4, Boyd County 7-0