Published: May 09, 2008 01:18 pm         

RCMS Lady Vikings fall to Bracken

The Rowan County Middle School girl’s softball team suffered two defeats Wednesday night in a double header against the Bracken County Polar Bears.

At the top of the game, Bracken’s three hits paired with three walks brought in as many runs, but a strikeout by Rowan Pitcher Mackenzie Summers brought the Vikings to bat. Jade Turner and Sierra Blevins both hits singles and Turner eventually stole home during a wild pitch to score. Tristan Nolen, Summers, and Bethany Demoss had strikeouts to end the inning.

The girls in green showed some good defensive moves in the second with a strikeout and a pop out to Turner. When Bracken’s Sara Stricklen hit a line drive back to the mound, Summers’ fast glove sent her back to the dugout, and Rowan back to bat. The girls had two strikeouts and a walk before Anna Chamroeun ground out to end the second.

Nolen stopped a ground hit to start the third, but when Bracken’s Jaden Workman walked to first, she made her way around to home, stealing bases at every opportunity, including home. A second ground out to Blevins and a third to Summers ended the turn. Polar Bear pitcher Stricklen proved to be a secret weapon with three up and three down.

“Stricklen pitches for the High School team over there, too,” Rowan Coach Mary Beth Armstrong said. “We struggled against her with the bats, and she managed to strikeout 12 of our girls in the first game.”

With the Vikings trailing 4-1 at the top of the fourth, the girls took the field. A single slipped past Summers and the runner stole second and third while the second batter swung for the out. Two more singles brought in two RBI’s, followed by a walk and another base hit. What would have been Jaden Workman’s third strike went wild and she reached first, but another Bracken runner tried to steal home and was tagged out in a run down by Nolen. Summers was walked to kick of the bottom of the fourth and was able to steal the bases for another run before the team was stopped by the Bracken defense.

Bracken batters only got one hit past Summers in the fifth, which was ground out at first. The arm of the Vikings threw one walk and two strikeouts to hold the Polar Bears with a 6-2 lead. Becca Stamm and Alli Banks suffered strikeouts and Nolen couldn’t outrun an impressive bunt in the bottom of the fifth.

Coach Armstrong said she’s proud of her first year team, and expects improvement as they get more experience with a fast pitch game.

The players agree with their coach.

“I think we did a lot better than we usually do,” Blevins said. “Our defense was good, but our offence needs more work. We’re used to the modified pitch and batting against Bracken was intimidating.”

Rowan’s second game on Wednesday ended in an 8-0 victory for the Polar Bears after rain shut the game down at the end of the third inning. During their three turns at bat, Rowan managed only three base runners.

The Viking girls played their final game Thursday night against Johnson Central. Anna Chamroeun, Wednesday night’s center fielder, said it will be important next year to learn from this season’s losses.

“We were fighting for the win,” she said. “A couple of errors kept us down and now we need to just pick up and look past them.”