CHS Lady Jackets softball win 3rd place at Benton tournament
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester High School Lady Yellow Jackets Softball Team defeated Hamilton Co. and Fairfield enroute to a third place finish at the 2010 Benton Tournament Saturday, May 8. Both wins came against Black diamond teams who the Jackets will face next season as part of their regular season schedule. The Jacket's only loss in the tournament came to Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference foe, Anna-Jonesboro.
CHS went up against Black Diamond challenger Fairfield in the first round and won a close contest, 8-7. The Jackets scored two runs in the second inning on three hits by Megan Atchison, Morgan Colvis and Rachel Sheely. Colvis and Sheely earned the RBIs on Clovis's triple and Sheely's single. Atchison and Colvis scored to take the lead.
In the fourth inning Mollie Laramore, Dani Homan and Rachel Sheely scored to increase the Yellow Jacket lead to 5-2. All CHS runs during that stretch were scored on runners being hit by pitches, fielder's choice and walks.
Fairfield had a huge fifth inning scoring five runs on three hits and a pair of Chester errors to take a 7-5 lead. The lead was very brief, however, as the Jackets came back with two more runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game, 7-7, on base hits by Megan Atchison, Morgan Colvis and Dani Homan.
Chester held Fairfield scoreless in the last two innings and added a winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game, 8-7 when Megan Atchison scored Lauren Hoops on a base hit. With the win Chester improved to 3-16 overall and advanced to the winner's bracket of the tournament.
In the Jacket's second game of the tournament at 2:30 p.m. the Anna-Jonesboro Lady Wildcats shut out the Jackets, 11-0, dropping CHS to 3-17 overall and sending the Lady Jackets to the Third-Place bracket.
CHS returned to an offensive-deficit mode against A.J. as Morgan Colvis was the only Yellow Jacket to get a hit. The Jackets had four other base runners, two which reached base on balls, one which reached base on a fielder's choice and yet another who was hit by a pitch. Otherwise the Lady Wildcats struck out seven and forced another 13 Chester batters to either ground out or fly out.
Anna scored 11 runs on nine hits, seven errors, a fielder's choice and a walk. The Wildcats stranded six runners on base for the day.
In the Third-Place game Chester hosted Fairfield at 5:30 p.m. Chester jumped out to a nice 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Taylor Crum reached base on an error and scored from first base when Lauren Hoops slammed a triple.
Morgan Colvis held Fairfield scoreless for three innings striking out five batters and keeping the ball on the infield for seven batters. The CHS defense backed up Colvis throughout the game and made some excellent plays to hold Fairfield in tact.
The Jackets scored another run in the bottom of the third as Mollie Laramore reached home plate on an error and Chester increased the lead to, 2-0. In the top of the fourth Fairfield returned the favor scoring a run on a hit and an error to pull within one run, 2-1.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Chester added three runs with two outs. After Mollie Laramore grounded out to the pitcher and Taylor Crum popped out to the first baseman, Lauren Hoops reached first base on an error. Megan Atchison smashed a base hit allowing Hoops to score and Ashley Andrews knocked Atchison home with a hit. Andrews then scored on a long fly ball to left field hit by Morgan Colvis and Chester increased the lead to, 5-1.
In the top of the sixth Fairfield scored one more lone run on one hit, a triple and a base on balls, but that would be as close as they would get as Chester won, 5-2, to improve to 4-17 on the season.