Community R-6 has plenty of reasons to be confident.

Community R-6 vs Westran Photo Gallery

The Lady Trojans recently learned they are ranked sixth in the first Class 1 state polls this season and felt they were that good. They showed why by coming back to defeat Class 2 Westran 7-4 after trailing 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning. 

Community (13-5) scored five runs in the fifth and sixth innings, including two go-ahead runs driven by Myla Carroll and one of two RBI doubles in the game by Amy McCurdy. Despite being down for most of the game, McCurdy was not worried.

“We knew we could,” McCurdy said. “We didn’t want to lose to a team that we know we can beat and should beat. We’re hitting the ball but just straight to people. We do that on slower pitchers. We told ourselves to sit back and wait.”

McCurdy finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Peyton Schafer went 2-for-4 with three runs and a double. Jocelyn Curtis scattered 10 hits to Westran (6-7) in seven innings but struck out 11.

Head coach Kendra Murphy said the situation wasn’t too bad for the Lady Trojans because they were hitting the ball but right at defenders. She thought the hits hence runs would come against Westran’s Kylee Hayes.

“It was hitting our pitch,” Murphy said. “Early, we were swinging at a lot of pitches down because (the umpire) was calling that low strike so it was making us nervous. You have two pitches before you have to swing at that so be patient and make her bring it up just a little bit.”

Waiting for the pitches to ascend made the difference in Community driving the ball more frequently. The freshman Carroll found herself in a bases loaded situation with two outs when the Lady Trojans were down 4-3 in the fifth inning. Carroll drove a pitch almost to the fence off the glove of a Westran outfielder that allowed two runners to score.

“Myla had a lot of confidence coming into this game,” Murphy said. “She had a great weekend, and she had a great Friday before that. She hit the cover off the ball. In the latter part of the season, you’re going to see a big change in her hitting.”

McCurdy drove a pitch earlier in that inning that landed at the base of the fence and scored Community’s third run. She was able to drive another pitch in the sixth inning to tack on an insurance run and score another on a wild pitch, saying “scooting up in the box” helped her hit Hayes better late in the game.

Over the weekend, McCurdy’s 15-game hitting streak ended. However, after Wednesday’s game, she still led the team with a .531 batting average, .583 on-base percentage and .719 slugging percentage and 1.302 OPS. Her two doubles just put her ahead of Carroll in the team RBI race with 21 runs driven in.

“I practice every day,” McCurdy said. “We have a game every Saturday, but every Sunday, I also go out and hit with my dad. I never take a day off from softball. Working on hitting every single day helps a lot with that. Since we broke the streak, my dad was like, ‘Amy, let’s go. We’ve got to get this figured out.’”

Westran scored its runs after advancing runners early in the inning, including on back-to-back sacrifice flies for a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning. Curtis put a stop to Westran’s rallies by retiring nine of the last 10 batters she faced.

Murphy said she had as much confidence in Curtis throughout the game as her offense. Despite all of the hits dropping, she said Curtis was still keeping the Lady Hornets at bay.

“Calling the game, she was hitting her spots,” Murphy said. “They were doing a really good job of sticking the bat out there and getting bloop hits early in the game. We changed our strategy of what we were calling and when, trying to get more swings and misses and or ground-ball outs. That was working a lot better for us than trying to get out in front.”

Community goes into Saturday’s Paris Tournament as a state-ranked team that will possibly have to go through two other teams that are either ranked or received votes in Paris and Salisbury. The Lady Trojans are the No. 3 seed behind first- and second-seeded Salisbury and Paris and play Canton (5-5) at 10:30 p.m. in the first round.

Murphy said she isn’t paying attention to state rankings as results are what’s most important if Community wants to avoid a first-round elimination to the state-ranked Lady Trojans last year.

“We have our sights set on districts and walking out of there as champions and advancing,” Murphy said. “I don’t really care what we’re ranked going into districts. I don’t really care what we’re ranked in districts. The important part is we’re playing our best ball at districts.”