SOFTBALL: West Frankfort sneaks by Elverado
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Elverado played catch-up most of the day and a seventh inning rally fell one run short as the Lady Falcons fell 5-4 to West Frankfort on Tuesday afternoon at home.
EHS recorded 11 hits in the game, but couldn't come up with the big hits to keep a rally going, scoring four times in four separate innings and leaving the bases loaded twice.
"It was not a very good effort in all aspects of the game," said Lady Falcons' head coach Donette Wheatley. "Our confidence is down and we are playing that way. (West Frankfort) scored when they needed to and we didn't."
The Lady Redbirds jumped on top 2-0 in the first, but Elverado got one back in the bottom of the inning when Kelsi Teague drove in Sami Hicks, who had reached with a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second by Chelsea Cochran.
Meghan Trammel led off the bottom of the second with a walk, then scored after singles by Abby Grammer and Lacey Qualls and the game was tied at 2-2.
Two more West Frankfort runs crossed home in the fourth, then Teague singled home Hicks for the Falcons in their half to make it 4-3.
Down 5-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, Erika Will started things off with a single for EHS, then Trammel followed with another. Will would score after an error and a passed ball, but the Lady Redbirds sent the next three hitters down in order to end the threat.
Corrine Wilson took the loss, but surrendered only three earned runs while striking out six and walking two.
Teague (2-4, 2 RBI), Hicks (2-3, 2B, BB, 2 R), and Will (2-3, BB, R) each had two-hit days for Elverado, Trammel (1-2, 2 BB, R), Grammer (1-3), and Qualls (1-4, RBI) also had base hits.
<u>Wright stumps Lady Falcons</u>
On Monday, the Lady Falcons fell 10-1 at Goreville and mustered only three hits against Lady Blackcats starter Jodi Wright.
"The Wright girl changes speeds very well," Wheatley said. "She kept our hitters guessing, she did a good job. We struck out way too many times, we only sent 26 batters to the plate and 12 of them were strikeouts."
Will had the Lady Falcons' only RBI in the game, driving in Cochran with a single in the fourth inning.
Will was 2-for-3 at the plate with Hicks picking up the other hit for EHS. Wilson went the distance in the pitching circle allowing six earned runs.
"Our defense wasn't as sharp as it has been, we had four errors that were normally routine plays for us," said Wheatley.
Elverado (2-2) softball hits the road on Friday to take on Galatia at 4:30 p.m.