Lady Cougars Take Third in Knox County Tournament

By Chris Heimer

   The Highland Lady Cougars played the Marion County Lady Mustangs in the third place game of the Knox County Varsity Softball Tournament and walked away with a 10-0 win to improve their record to 4-2 on the season.

   The Lady Cougars scored first thanks to a one out double by Amanda Hinkle of the left field fence.  She advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Samantha Murfin.  The Lady Cougars added two more runs in the bottom of the second when Ashlan Knoche lead off with a double. Kalyn Lay followed Ashlan with a double of her own scoring Ashlan.  Kalyn moved to third on a ground out and then scored on a ground out by Adrienn Myers to give the Lady Cougars a 3-0 lead.  The Lady Cougars added four more runs in the bottom of the third.  Jessica Murfin led off with a single.  Hinkle followed her with a single.  Samantha Murfin then walked to load the bases.  Jessica [Murfin] and Hinkle would score on pass balls.  Ashley Runquist walked and Knoche was hit by a pitch to load the bases again.  Lay delivered an RBI single and Emily Sly walked to drive in another run to make the score 7-0.  After a strike out, Sly was picked off first for the second out and Chevie Wiseman struck out to end the inning.

   The Lady Cougars finished their scoring in the bottom of the fourth when Hinkle walked with one out advanced to second on a pass ball and scored on Samantha [Murfin’s] RBI single. Samantha [Murfin] would then score on an RBI single by Knoche.  Knoche would advance to second on a wild pitch and score on an RBI single by pinch hitter Chelsea Brennan to cap the scoring by the Lady Cougars. 

   The Lady Mustangs had one real good opportunity to score and that was in the second inning when they had runners on second and third but couldn’t get a hit to push any runners across.  “We final hit the ball hard and took advantage of some walks and I hope we can continue to build on this game,” Coach Scifres said.

   Ashlan Knoche and Amanda Hinkle both had two hits apiece to led the Lady Cougars.  Amanda scored three times while Ashlan scored twice and had an RBI.  Samantha Murfin and Kalyn Lay each had two RBI’s for the Lady Cougars.  Jessica Murfin picked up the win giving her a record of 3-2 on the season.  She shut the Lady Mustangs out on three hits, while striking out three, and she didn’t allow a walk.