Community R-6’s offense had an alright beginning and end but a nonexistent middle.

Community R-6 vs Montgomery County Photo Gallery

The Class 1 No. 8 Lady Trojans lost 4-2 to Class 2 No. 10 Montgomery County, failing to pick up a RBI hit and striking out 13 times against Reese Hill. Community finished with four hits against Hill, who allowed one earned run in seven innings.

Rylee Rafferty led off the first inning for Community (17-10) with a base hit and then Chloe Johnson led off the seventh inning with a base hit. The Lady Trojans didn’t score in either inning but were applying some pressure to Montgomery County (19-5). Head coach Kendra Murphy said that didn’t happen much against Hill.

“She was either going up-up-up and further up and or she was going out-out-out and further out,” Murphy said. “We just kept chasing up-up-up, and we kept chasing out-out-out. When we’re swinging at pitches she wants us to swing at, good things are not going to happen.”

Hill struck out the final two batters of the first two innings that stranded Community runners and then did the same in the fourth inning. 

Murphy said it is a balance in approach because, on one hand, she wants the Lady Trojans to be disciplined, but on the other hand, they can’t let those hittable pitches go by. No matter how well someone is pitching, Murphy said hitters usually have at least one pitch they can rip.

“We were also taking that first pitch that she gave us that was really good and then getting ourselves in a hole where we had to chase more,” Murphy said. “I don’t know about early in the count, but it’s just being more aggressive when she gave us the pitch to hit. I don’t know that there was any batter that didn’t see at least one pitch that they should’ve hit.”

Jocelyn Curtis scattered eight hits and three walks in seven innings but also struck out five. She didn’t surrender too many hard-hit balls to the Lady Wildcats. 

Two exceptions were when Montgomery took a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning that was sparked by a solo home run by Hill with much hang time. Then, insurance was added later in the sixth inning on a solo home run by Aliviah Fischer that was lined out over the fence. Each result was a home run but neither looked the same.

“The first home run that was hit, I’ll own that one because I called the change and she hit it,” Murphy said. “The rise ball on the second home run was a little flat, and she didn’t get it up as high as I wanted her to get it up. She threw well, only giving up four runs. We should be able to score more than four runs.”

Murphy said Community did have the ability to scrape some runs across the plate in the second and fifth innings due to her team being matched up well with Montgomery’s catcher. Lydia Hoyt in the second inning and Braelyn Kuda in the fifth were able to steal bases and advance to third base before crossing on a passed ball. 

Those were the right runners in those situations, Murphy said, but the hits just need to follow. If Community wants to reach its goal of five or more runs per game, girls need to at least be able to put the ball in play. After Monday, the Lady Trojans have three more games before districts next week, starting with their final home game at 5 p.m. tonight against Louisiana (12-7)

“It’s putting a complete game together,” Murphy said. “We’re trying to break the game down in a couple different ways to give the girls a little more perspective of what needs to happen when. Between two more games this week and a couple practices, my hope is we’ll be there. I don’t think we’re far.”