Balancing Offense and Defense

The Tigers continued their late season stretch of games with a Thursday game against Cane Ridge High School. While the beginning of the inning was slow to start, opening pitcher Ellie Rothman and 3rd base player Victoria White made a great double play to inspire the fans and their teammates! The batter hit a short pop up in front of the pitcher's mound, then Ellie tracked it and made a quick throw to 3rd where Victoria tagged the runner before they got to tag up. The Tigers held Cane Ridge to 2 runs with runners left on base.

The bottom of the first was again led by Amelie Soslow, who remains the most consistent offensive player for the Tigers. Her bunting and speed has earned her an OBP of almost 1.00 or 100% at the time of this writing (on base percentage refers to how frequently a batter reaches base per plate appearance. Times on base include hits, walks and hit-by-pitches). 

By the bottom of the third inning Cane Ridge was winning 7-1. It was the fourth inning that was wild offensively and defensively for both teams. Cane Ridge earned 10 runs at the top of the fourth while the Tigers tried to fight back with 7 runs of their own. However, that final push wasn’t enough to keep them in the game. Some notable highlights came from some of the freshmen, Grayson Princehorn and Victoria White. They both earned RBIs (runs batted in), which means their hits directly led to 2 runs for the team! 

Ellie Rothman finished the first two innings with a total of 67 pitches and a strikeout and then Alena Ellis closed for USN and had a total of 86 pitches and 3 strikeouts. While the Tigers were aggressive on the base paths and taking advantage of Cane Ridge throwing errors. It’s the details that can make the difference between a 9 run game and a 3 run game. While the Tigers were missing their starting 3rd baseman and 1st basemen players like Asauda Radford, Amelie Soslow, and Eleanor Molviog stepped up playing positions outside their normal rotation. At that point the offense has to show up and support their defense. The good news is that the Tigers stay aggressive at the plate and aren’t watching strikes pass. That mindset and willingness to swing will make a huge difference as the team gets more game experience against other pitchers. Stay head strong on the path towards success Tigers, through failure comes triumph so keep pushing to find that next level!