Paris and Community R-6 each needed something small from their teams when facing each other Wednesday in Laddonia.

Small ball was the offensive strategy each team was forced to employ as a pitcher’s duel broke out between Paris’ Kennedy Ashenfelter and Community’s Paige Painter.

Three hits were surrendered during the game, but none of them scored the winning run in the seventh inning as Wendi Sutherland’s groundout scored Rachel Shoemyer.

Ashenfelter faced four batters over the minimum in her seven innings while striking out six and allowing one hit to Olivia Kuda in the second inning. Painter matched Ashenfelter pitch for pitch, facing one batter over the minimum from the third inning to the seventh inning and allowing one unearned run in seven innings.

Paris head coach Collin Huffman said Wednesday’s victory had meaning in the all-time series against the Lady Trojans as the Lady Coyotes went into the latest matchup the loser of the previous six and were outscored 70-11 in those games. For this season, though, Paris has been on the losing end of two one-run games on the road — 2-1 in 10 innings against Louisiana and 3-2 against Cairo — so it was nice the Lady Coyotes were victorious this time.

“I thought that could be a turning point for this young squad is that they just don’t know what it’s like to do it,” Huffman said. “Now they did it and they understand that if you just play solid defense and you get the hit and execute some things just when you need to — and I told them in the sixth inning ‘One is all you need for this one. The way your pitcher’s throwing tonight, one will be enough, if you just back her up.’”

The word execute meant so much more in Wednesday’s game as Community and Paris each tried to execute bunts and tried to use small ball to manufacture offense. The Lady Trojans tried to finesse a baserunner on several times but to no success.
Community head coach Kody Asquith said small ball is an area his team should be able to succeed and was something it needed after recognizing how sharp Ashenfelter was about halfway through the game.

“We were struggling at the plate trying to manufacture hits, and we coaches talked and were like ‘Hey, we’re going to have to switch us to the small ball game,’” Asquith said. “I’ve got several girls who are quick so if we can get them to bunt and get them on the bag, I feel we could move them around with a hit coming up behind them — or even another bunt.”

The Lady Coyotes failed several times to bunt but laid them down when it was most crucial. Shoemyer pushed a ball toward the pitcher’s circle, and Painter was unable to corral the ball in time to throw her out at first base. Huffman said Sutherland, who dug in two batters later, was confident she would have an RBI opportunity given Shoemyer’s speed. Shoemyer stole her second base in the game before rounding third base to touch home plate on the groundout to the right fielder Taylor Johnson.

“She is just so fast — most people don’t expect that especially when she takes a big, hefty cut,” Huffman said. “If they’re back, then drop that sucker down and just go. A bunt for her is a double because she’s stealing the next base. It’s automatic. She’s going.

“Wendi hasn’t been hitting in a lot in varsity games — been playing a lot of JV. Last night, she played some JV, and she was putting good swings on balls. So I thought she needed to be in the lineup tonight.”

Paris didn’t have many good swings against Painter as she continued her success from Tuesday’s 12-1 win at Central Activities Conference foe Slater — three strikeouts, two hits and one run in six innings. After pitching around some errors in the first two innings, Painter had only hit one batter and allowed two singles that were both erased by double plays.

“She pitched a heck of a game,” Asquith said. “There’s nothing to hang her head up on in that one. She just got in her zone, and she was ready to play tonight.”

The “back-and-forth” nature of the game Asquith said just wasn’t enough against Ashenfelter, who is familiar with being on the losing end of a one-run game. She pitched every inning against Louisiana and Cairo while allowing three earned runs in those losses.

Ashenfelter had to pitch with traffic on the bases in the first innings, stranding four Lady Trojans before becoming more stingy as the game wore on. Huffman said he actually thinks Ashenfelter is comfortable in those situations.

“The difference from last to this year is she locks in more when a runner’s on — having the confidence in her sister (catcher Emma Ashenfelter) and knowing her sister can shut the run game down immediately,” Huffman said. “That’s something we haven’t had in a long time, so those two paired together, you can almost see the confidence leaking out of them sometimes.”

Paris (5-6) returned home Thursday to face New Franklin before it plays Linn County at 10:30 a.m. today in the North Shelby Tournament. Community (4-7, 2-2 CAC) played Friday at Sturgeon before participating in the Cairo Softball Tournament today.

Painter leads Lady Trojans to 12-1 win at Slater

Paige Painter was effective with the ball and the bat Tuesday.

Community R-6 notched its first Central Activities Conference win since August by defeating Slater 12-1 in six innings. Painter struck out three and allowed one run on two hits in six innings, and finished 2-for-4 with two RBI at the plate.

Alyssa Beamer received the start in left field and rewarded the coaches by going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Olivia Kuda drove in two runs, and four other Lady Trojans each had one RBI.

Painter dug in with the bases loaded in the first inning and brought in a run with a single to left field. Two runs were home in the second inning due to a Slater error and the Community lead grew to 5-0 after two innings following RBI singles by Sarah Angel and Brooklynn Glasgow.

The Lady Trojans used seven Slater errors to score six unearned runs. One of those errors sparked four runs in the fourth, with half of them scoring on a Beamer single.

Community’s win continues the trend of domination against the Wildcats as the Lady Trojans have now outscored Slater 68-4 in the previous six meetings.