Advosports

Jenny Johnson stepped up to the plate in the sixth inning with a weighty task on her shoulders.

Victoria East had been trading runs with Gregory-Portland to that point, and the Titans needed baserunners.

She would not disappoint.

"I was just thinking 'Get a base hit, that's all you have to do," Johnson said. "Once you get something going, there's going to be a domino effect and my teammates were going to pick me up afterward."

Her hit would lead to the Titans getting two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, putting away the Ladycats 4-2 Friday night to move to 2-1 in District 30-4A play.

But she waited on base for two agonizing batters, as the two after her made two outs.

Still, Johnson, a transfer from Industrial in her first year at Victoria East, knew she was going to score.

She just had a feeling.

"I really didn't have any doubts," she said. "I knew we have a really good lineup and our awesome catcher Lexie (Elkins) would pick me up."

Elkins, who had hit the ball hard in all of her previous at bats, was hit by a pitch. The next batter, Marina Rios, would bring her in with a single in the next at-bat.

"From the plate where I was, you could see where it was coming at," she said. "I was like, 'Oh I know what's coming.'

"She was throwing me a lot of pitches outside, then she brought me inside because of the hit I had in the first inning, and I just adjusted to it. I just took a few steps back and got a hit."

Rios had a good game at the plate, getting two RBIs and going 2 for 3 at the plate off of Hailey Kirkland, who had moderate success against the Titans hitters otherwise, notching four strikeouts in six innings.

But her counterpart for East was just as good.

Freshman pitcher Alisha Quinterro had another strong outing, allowing just two earned runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. She also struck out five batters.

But helping her for most of the evening was the Titans spotless defense. East committed no errors and played a clean game in the field for all seven innings.

"We'd prepared for it, and we knew where the girls were going because coach had a really good practice with us," Johnson said. "We were just prepared."

Rios also said the the Titans have been using better communication in the field to reduce their errors in the field.

"Talking gets us a long way, we'll know where the ball is being hit at," she said. "We've been practicing a lot defensively to take those key errors out of the game."

Victoria East 4, Gregory-Portland 2

GP 000 110 0 - 2 7 2

VE 100 120 x - 4 6 0

WP - Quinterro, LP - Kirkland. Highlights: Quinterro CG, 2 ER, 5 K, 7 H, 2 BB; Lexie Elkins 1-for-2, 2B, 2 R, HBP; Marina Rios 2-for-3, 2 RBIs, 3B.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Comment