By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
ALABASTER — Kenleigh Cahalan finally got a pitch to hit, and she made the Thompson Warriors pay here Tuesday night, driving the ball deep to left field and banging a homer off the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning to put Hewitt-Trussville up 5-1 as the Huskies cruised to victory.
Cahalan hasn’t had much of a chance to hit early in the season. She’s been on base a lot, though, as coaches have elected to intentionally put her on base and allow their pitchers to take their chances with the bats in the lineup behind Cahalan. But Tuesday night, she got the chance to swing away.
“She just threw me a low fastball outside,” Cahalan said afterward. “I just tried to relax and … hit it hard. I want to go up there with a level head and not think too much about it, so I just try to go up there relaxed and try to expect a missed pitch or ready for any pitch and try to get the bat on the ball as hard as I can.”
Mission accomplished, on this night at least.
Olivia Faggard got the scoring started for the Huskies in the top of the first when she hit a sacrifice fly to score Hannah Dorsett from third, but the Huskies left Cahalan on third and Riley Rudick on first to end the scoring threat. With half an inning in the books, Hewitt was up 1-0.
However, Hewitt-Trussville would capitalize again in the second inning when Dorsett ripped a double to score Gracie Reeves all the way from first. The Warriors walked Cahalan for the second time, and Riley Tyree hit a seeing-eye double that managed to sneak between shortstop and third. Dorsett scored, and Cahalan moved to third base to make it 3-0.
As the Thompson players tried to gather themselves, Cahalan noted that time had not been called and streaked for the plate to score again. Suddenly it was 4-0 and the Huskies never looked back.
“I think we did a good job with some heads-up baserunning,” head coach Taylor Burt said. “We did a good job jumping out on them the first two innings. We’ve got to do a better job of continuing to put runs on throughout the middle innings, but other than that, baserunning helped us out a lot.”
Sarah Hindman pitched 4-and-2/3, allowing only one (unearned) run as the Huskies had a throwing error that led to a Thompson score. With two out and two on in the bottom of the fifth, Hindman gave way to Sara Phillips, who struck out the next Thompson batter to end the Warrior threat.
Hewitt-Trussville also had great success defensively, turning two double plays on the evening, including an absolute gem of a 5-4-3 play in the bottom of the fourth, with Cahalan fielding the ball cleanly, soft toss to Dorsett, and Dorsett firing to Olivia Stults for the second out.
The middle infield for the Huskies is particularly strong, as Cahalan and Dorsett have been playing together since they were about six years old.
“We’ve got two of the best middle infielders — if not the best middle infielders — in the state of Alabama,” Burt said. “I’d put them up against anybody.”
Cahalan said she was looking for an opportunity to turn two.
“It (the opportunity for a double play) came early for us this year,” Cahalan said. “Luckily I have a great second baseman to have that quick transfer who can make the throw and get the second out.”
With Phillips in the circle, the Warriors couldn’t adjust. The final out came on a weakly spinning ball in the dirt that Phillips fielded and tossed to Stults at first and the Huskies secured the 5-1 win.