BENTON — The Benton Rangerettes were in fine form Tuesday afternoon as they bested county rival West Frankfort Lady Redbirds 5-1. This win moves Benton to 7-6 in the regular season and bumps them up to 1-1 in the SIRR conference.
The Rangerettes put in a great overall performance, belting out 11 hits, and committing only one error in the game. Benton's top sluggers were Lacey Jerkins who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored, Ally Gischer who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Aubrey Hunter who was 2-for-4 and Cristen Shaw was 1-for-4 with three RBIs, all driven in separate at bats.
Benton jumped out to a 1-0 lead after only two at bats as Gischer drove in a leadoff hit, and then was knocked in by Jerkins with an RBI double, who was then subsequently batted in by Shaw. Allie Herron picked up Frankfort's only RBI of the game as she knocked in Stephanie Tucker with a double in the second inning to trim the Rangerettes' lead down to one. Jerkins hit safely, and was driven home by Shaw two more times in the third and the fifth, and Gischer was knocked in by Jerkins for a final insurance run in the top of the seventh.
Frankfort was looking for a big comeback in the bottom of the seventh. Down 5-1 with two outs against them, Terrilynn Summers and Mackenzie Campbell came up with back to back hits, to bring the tying run to the on-deck circle. As quickly as it began, the rally was snuffed out with just one ground ball as Tucker grounded to third to get the lead runner tagged out to end the game.
Taylor Mosley held the Lady Birds to only six hits, and fanned four West Frankfort hitters to record the official win. Sarah Aldridge took the loss for her team, and it was a tough afternoon on the mound as the Rangerettes had no strikeouts recorded against them in the game and knocked the ball all over the park yet again. For Benton, this was a vast improvement over Monday's loss to Herrin in which they could muster all of two hits.
"We had a rough start yesterday. We put the bat on the ball, but just didn't get a lot of base hits, and today we did a 180," said coach Sarah Stowers after the game. "We just got a lot of hits, and we were aggressive with our base running. We got out a couple times, but we're just trying to teach our girls that we can take advantage of certain things. Sometimes it'll go our way, and other times it won't."
Stowers said that she was proud of the performance put in by everyone on the team."I felt like each person played their spot really well, and did what we needed them to do. Whether it was lay down a bunt, or pitch an outside pitch and possibly walk a kid. I keep telling the girls the one thing we focus on is the 'we' and not the 'me'," concluded Stowers.
The Rangerettes will hit the field next on April 12, in an away game against Murphysboro.
