Making up for lost time

Making up for lost time

Marion hits field, Central pitching in sweep

Sports Editor Marion had already saw a pair of games cancelled due to excessive rain last week when Little Rock Central paid the Lady Pats a visit yesterday afternoon.

Despite not having played since March 8, Marion’s offense tried its best to make up for lost time. The Lady Pats swept the Lady Tigers in each teams’ conference opener, claiming victories of 17-2 and 21-2 to move to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the 7A/6A-East at Lady Patriot Field.

In the opener, Marion got a big game from a familiar face, as well as a newer one.

Seniors Mabry Watson and Raygan Shelton left their impact on the 17-2 decision by combining to go 7-for-8 at the plate, scoring 5 runs and driving in 10 runs.

Each player also homered against Central as Watson led off the bottom of the first with a blistered shot to left field that cleared the fence, while Shelton hit a line drive into the rightcenterfield gap that shot to the wall and scored junior second basewoman Hope Phipps and Shelton herself to give Marion a 4-0 lead at the time.

Watson, a four-year starter for Marion, also got the start on the mound and pitched a run-rule-shortened five-inning complete game, and allowed just three hits, two runs (none earned) and walked no hitters.

Perhaps most interestingly, all 15 of Watson’s recorded outs came via the strikeout. Marion committed four errors against Little Rock Central.

“The way we kicked it around and didn’t make plays, I wasn’t pleased with that at all,” said Marion head coach David Horton. “Neither were the girls. We didn’t record an out that wasn’t a strikeout, and that’s disappointing. We’ve always been a team that makes plays and when we don’t do that, that’s kind of disappointing.”

Shelton, a Bethel University signee, transferred from Mountain Home in the fall and has gotten starts at third base in each of Marion’s first two games. The versatile senior was 4-for-4 against Central and her first plate appearance ended with her striking an RBI double that chased in senior Morgan Weaver (1-3, 2 runs scored), for a 2-0 Marion lead.

That was the score after two innings against the traditionally- weaker Lady Tigers, but when Phipps led the bottom of the third off with a walk ahead of Shelton’s inside-the-park homer, Marion seemed to get some traction.

“I thought we finally started competing at the plate a little bit,” Horton says. Their pitcher kept us offbalance with some of her throws early on.”

In the third, Marion marched up nine hitters, accounting for five runs and seven hits to go up 7-0. With one out, senior McKenzie Shirley (3-4, 2 runs, 3 RBI) singled and scored on a passed ball while shortstop Blakeleigh Garrison (1-2, 2 runs scored, RBI) would walk and score on a Destiny King (2-2, 2 runs, RBI) double to right-center.

Central would get two of those runs back in the fourth, aided by three Marion errors, but the Lady Pats’ offense was still ginning.

In the home-half of the fourth, Marion sent 14 hitters to the plate, accounting for seven hits and 10 runs.

In fact, Shelton and Shirley would bat twice in that inning and not only would each come up with a pair of hits, each player also struck extra-base hits, with Shelton clearing the bases with her second triple of the stanza while Shirley scored Shelton and catcher Micah Tolleson with a double to cap the scoring at 17-2.

Watson claimed her second win of year against Little Rock Central.

Marion will compete in the Brookland Tournament this weekend in Brookland, with games on Friday and Saturday. On March 22, Marion will play in the Rivercrest Classic in Wilson.

The Lady Pats are back home on March 31 when they host 2015 Class 7A runners-up Cabot in a 7A/6A-East doubleheader that will get going at 4:30 p.m.

NOTE: Stats and story from the second Little Rock Central game can be found in Friday’s edition of The Evening Times.

By Chuck Livingston