By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers tacked on another District 7-3A softball victory Wednesday evening as they won at White County, 3-1.
Senior Kara VonAchen recorded the victory in the circle as she struck out 4 batters in 4 and 2/3 innings of relief. She also went 2-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.
“Leadership on the mound was big,” said Stone Memorial head coach Brittany Bilbrey. “Kara came in during a sticky situation and worked her way through it. We did just enough offensively to get it done.”
VonAchen opened the contest with a single in the top of the first to score Ashley Whittenburg followed by an Ellie Smith single to score Bailey Dyer in the second to give the Lady Panthers a 2-0 lead.
White County threatened in the bottom of the third as the Warriorettes loaded the bases with one out, but VonAchen pitched out of the jam as she forced a ground-out and a strikeout to keep White County off the board.
Stone Memorial added a run in the top of the sixth inning as Cami Holbrook drew a bases-loaded walk to give her team a 3-0 lead.
The Warriorettes got on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning as a Kylie Norvell single scored Jessica Wright, cutting White County’s deficit to 3-1 with no outs and two runners on.
VonAchen went to work on the final three batters as she sat them down in order to seal the 3-1 victory.
“We’ve been trying to find a way to put 7 innings together all season,” said Bilbrey. “I told them in the huddle afterwards that that’s what a softball game should look like.”
The teams are scheduled to face off again Thursday afternoon in Crossville at 5:30 p.m.
“We can’t have jet-lag,” said Bilbrey. “This was an emotional game and we have to come out fresh and focused.”