MOUNT VERNON — Thursday’s season opener wasn’t supposed to go like this for the Mount Vernon High School softball team. After a strong scrimmage outing on Wednesday at Hilliard Darby, the Yellow Jackets opened the season, hosting River View.
Black Bear pitcher Dani Gore dominated Mount Vernon for six innings, taking a no-hitter into the seventh. At the plate, River View pounded out seven hits, including three doubles by Michelle Adkins en route to a 5-0 win.
“This was disappointing compared to how we played [Wednesday],” Mount Vernon coach Carisa Grove said. “We were hitting in our scrimmage against Hilliard Darby, but we were a really different team today. We’re not going to win ball games off of two hits. We need to be more aggressive at the plate and help our pitchers out.”
Gore cruised through the first four innings, tossing a perfect game until an error by third baseman Emily Cochran allowed Mount Vernon’s Trisha Gentry to reach base. Gore got out of it by getting the next two outs and then sat down the side in the sixth. It wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh that the Jackets broke up the no-hitter.
Mackenzie Shaw reached on an infield single to start the seventh inning, but was erased at second after a fielder’s choice by Michelle Gastin. Bailee Marcum walked to put two on, and Gentry followed with a single to center, which loaded the bases. That was as far as Mount Vernon would get, though. Gore got Kris Maiorino to pop out and then had Sarah Kirk to groundout, ending the game.
“Their pitcher was decent. She was throwing hard,” Grove said. “All you have to do is time up and tee off. We’re not doing that right now.”
Anneke Mason started the game for Mount Vernon, but was pulled after two innings. Mason breezed through the first inning, but ran into trouble in the second. Leadoff batter Caitlin McCall reached on a wild pitch, third strike and moved to second after a fielder’s choice. Adkins drove McCall in with the first run with her first double. Mason got Cochran to strike out for the second out, but threw the ball into center field on a pick off attempt. The error allowed Adkins to advance to third. Adkins came home after an infield single by Lindy Nixon. Mason struck out Kasey Bowman to end the inning.
Marcum replaced Mason on the mound to start the third inning and was effective for four of her five innings. The only exception was in the sixth inning when the Black Bears strung together three hits and a fielder’s choice to plate three insurance runs.
“It was my decision to pull Anneke,” Grove said. “I just felt like she wasn’t feeling it. I could see it in her face. Bailee threw really well [yesterday] and I was hoping she could do it again. She didn’t do too bad. Our fielding didn’t help us and we weren’t helping her out on the offensive side either. We’ve some work to do if we want to compete in our league.”
The Jackets return to action on Saturday when they travel to Ridgewood Middle School to face host Bishop Watterson and Hilliard Davidson in a tri-header.
“It will be a big challenge on Saturday,” said Grove. “If we play like we did today, it will be tough.”
