The Campbell County Lady Cougars softball team fell to Cumberland Gap 8-6 at home on Monday night for senior night.
“I thought the girls played hard,” head coach Rebecca Mongar Collette said. “They came out here to play ball tonight. We talked about when you get down about just chipping away, it doesn’t have to be just in one inning. They were working at that and they were aggressive at the plate. This pitcher, she threw pretty hard. We’ve just gotta make some minor adjustments in there, especially with two strikes on you, just get the ball in play. We talked to them about just making them field the ball. If you get the ball in play it gives them mistakes for the errors.
“Just continue to cut down on the mistakes we make in the field and then just continue being aggressive at the plate. If they come to play hard tomorrow like they did tonight, I think tomorrow’s ball game with Oak Ridge will be a good game.
Campbell County also honored its seniors before the game.
“These three girls, and Paul are all obviously very special to our team,” Collette said. “All three of those girls play a huge role on our team. All three starters, all three make a big difference for us. I can say that they are definitely going to be missed out here next year. I think that we are going to be lucky enough to keep Paul around a little bit even though he’ll be a senior. We are glad to have him and his family with us as well.”
Cumberland Gap got the scoring going early as it scored a run in the top of the first inning off of pitcher Kiera Bierdemann.
A Bierdemann single was the only offense Campbell County was able to produce in the bottom of the first inning.
Bierdemann sat down Cumberland Gap in order in the top of the second inning.
Campbell County scored one run in the bottom of the second inning as Jenna Leigh Pinkston scored Lakin Smith with an RBI double.
Campbell County was unable to preserve its lead in the top of the third inning as fielding errors and timely hitting by Cumberland Gap expanded its lead to 5-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning.
Destiny Rutherford helped Campbell County cut into the deficit in the bottom of the third inning as she reached first base on a fielding error and then was able to cause chaos on the base paths which resulted in her scoring.
Cumberland Gap led 5-2 at the start of the top of the fourth inning.
Neither offense was able to get anything going in the fourth inning and it carried over into the top of the fifth inning for Cumberland Gap also.
Campbell County tied the game up in the bottom of the fifth inning and it started with a Jenna Yancey hit by pitch.
Rutherford followed it up by singling which advanced Yancey to third and then Rutherford got to second on the throw to third to challenge Yancey.
Maggie Adams scored the duo with a double.
Adams was scored by a Keiley Sims single which tied the game at 5-5 going into the top of the sixth inning.
Cumberland Gap responded immediately by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth inning and then holding Campbell County scoreless in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Cumberland Gap added one more run with an excellent squeeze bunt play at home in the seventh inning to take an 8-5.
Amber Morris had a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning to score a run but that’s all offense Campbell County was able to find.
