by Rusty Ellis
LIVINGSTON – The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers earned their first district win of the season over Livingston Academy 17-5 on Thursday evening, as a nine-run first inning proved to be too much for the Lady Wildcats to overcome.
Kara VonAchen got her massive night started with an RBI double to drive home the game’s first run, and Cadence Cox followed it with a two-run blast to give Stone a 3-0 lead. The Lady Panthers’ rally continued with back-to-back singles, which led to a Chesney Cash three-run homer to break the game open early at 6-0.
Three more runs came home to score on a Bailey Dyer RBI single and VonAchen’s second double of the inning, making the score 9-0 by the end of the opening frame.
Livingston battled back and scratched across three runs against Cox in the bottom of the inning, as three Stone errors allowed the runs to score to make 9-3. Stone got one of the runs back on an RBI groundout from Ashley Whittenburg in the second, but Livingston responded with two more runs in the bottom of the second to make it a 10-5 game.
From here on out however, Cox settled into a groove in the circle and tossed 1.2 scoreless innings before being removed for VonAchen. In that time frame, the Lady Panthers scored three runs on a Whittenburg RBI single and a VonAchen two-run triple to push the lead back to 13-5.
After VonAchen retired the third out of the fourth, Stone scored their final four runs of the game in the fifth to bring the game to a close at 17-5.
VonAchen finished 5-5 at the plate with three doubles, a triple and five RBIs, while Cash finished with two hits, including the home run, and four runs driven in of her own.
Stone will host Monterey on Monday for their next contest, while Livingston will take on Jackson County at home on the same day.