Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The DeKalb County Tigerettes earned a big district victory on Thursday night with their 2-0 victory over White County.
Starting pitchers Ashlynn Phillips and Kora Kilgore traded scoreless frames to open the first two innings of play before DeKalb finally scratched a run across in the third. Emma Martin singled to drive in Madison Martin, giving the Tigerettes a slim 1-0 lead.
Kilgore continued to give the Warriorettes fits in the circle, as she struck out six batters over the first three innings to send the game to the fourth inning with a 1-0 DeKalb lead.
Aniston Farler doubled the Tigerettes lead in the fourth, doubling to drive in Morgan Walker f0r a 2-0 Tigerette lead.
That would be all the run support Kilgore needed, as she didn’t allow a White County hit until the sixth inning when Ashlynn Rohlander singled. The hit wouldn’t hurt DeKalb however, as Kilgore pitched around it to send the game to seventh with the same score.
White County put together their best scoring chance in their last at-bats, as Ashlynn Phillips doubled to open the inning and promptly took third on a wild pitch. Addison Abell walked and gave way to Abigail Schalk as a courtesy runner.
In an effort to make something happen, Schalk attempted to steal second, but was thrown out for the first out. Kilgore then struck out Abigail Finan and Ryleigh Burchett to close out the complete-game shutout with 14 strikeouts for the Tigerettes and head coach Danny Fish.
“She’s got really good stuff,” Fish said. “At the beginning of the year, she was a little erratic with her control, but that’s just the nerves of being a freshman…tonight, she had nerves of steel out there on the road, playing a top-5 team in AAA.”
The timely hitting may have been overshadowed by Kilgore’s performance, but for Fish, he says the hits by Martin and Farler were just a product of going to the plate with a plan and executing.
“That’s very important, we talk about having a good approach at the plate all the time,” Fish said. “We knew how to attack today. It was crucial at-bats, Emma Martin drives in a big run with two outs and Aniston Farler with the other RBI…it was just a really good, gutsy performance by our team.”
Fish is certainly no stranger to playing in a tough district, and as tough as this softball league is, this is a win he knows can do a lot for his team’s confidence.
“We’ve played a really tough schedule,” Fish said. “We’ve just not been able to get over the hump, so it feels good to come play a top-tier team on their field and put together a complete effort. It feels really good.”
