By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
MOODY – The Moody Lady Blue Devils have put together a string of 6 straight wins of late, the latest being a dominant 12-4 victory over their rivals, the Leeds Lady Green Wave on Tuesday evening.
In the top of the first inning, the Green Wave jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Moody as Sophie Gromko hit a double to left field, scoring Sophie Sisk followed by a Marley Miller double to left field as well, that drove in Gromko. In the bottom of the first, Moody answered with 5 runs of their own. With the bases loaded, A Harvard hit a ground out that would allow Kendall Trimm to come to the plate to start the scoring for Moody. Emma Kile got a single to left that would drive in Zoey Terry to knot it up at 2 apiece. Next, Lacey Nichols hit a single to center field that brought in Kile and Libby Higgins to put the Blue Devils up 4-2. To complete the scoring for the inning, Kennedy Hockman grounded to shortstop where the ball was mishandled and Abi Gray would score to make it 5-2 Moody after just 1 inning.
Moody would hold Leeds to no runs in the second while adding 2 runs to their total as Higgins would drive in Trimm and Kile would bring Terry home to make it 7-2 Moody after 2 innings.
Leeds would get another run in the top of the third as Gromko hit a pop fly to center field that would bring Tanner Galloway home. Moody would widen the gap in the third, scoring 3 more runs. Trimm would bring H Forester to the plate for the first run. Hockman would score on a wild pitch to make it 9-3 and then Higgins would hit a sacrifice fly to center field that would bring Taylor Rogers across the plate to make it 10-3 Moody heading into the fourth inning.
The fourth and fifth innings would be scoreless as both teams’ bats would cool down a bit. Leeds would start the sixth inning by adding a run to their total on a home run by Sisk on the second pitch of the inning. Not to be outdone, Moody would add 2 more to finish the scoring for the game as Rogers would bring Nichols home on a single to right and Higgins was walked with the bases loaded and Ryleigh Hodges would get the final run.
“We started doing some things different in practice,” said Leeds Coach Erin Wright. “We have incorporated base running into everything that we do so we put more pressure on our offense which in turn puts more pressure on our defense. It showed tonight as we made a few costly errors that gave them more momentum than we would have liked. We did jump out and score 2 on them in the first inning which was one of our goals.”
Moody coach Becky Seymour had the following to say about the game, “Obviously it is a huge area win for us. Very similar score last week when we played them. They jumped out on us early and surprised us a bit. The last time it took them 6 or 7 to jump on us. So that surprised us. My defense did a good job responding and shutting them down with pitching. Obviously putting up 12 runs, those type of numbers being put up means my offense is doing their job. I’ve got a couple of girls that I’m trying to rotate into the varsity lineup and one coming back from injury. We aren’t 100%. It’s all a learning process and we have to continue to learn and grow so we can get where we want to be in the next couple of weeks.
Moody improves to 19-9 on the season while Leeds falls to 1-14.