By Rob Potter
ELDRED — April 26, 2005 – An eight-run second inning was the key to victory for the Eldred Lady Yellowjackets on Friday afternoon.
The offensive outburst allowed Eldred to turn a one-run deficit into a commanding seven-run advantage over The Family School in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division VI softball game.
Eldred (4-2, 1-2 Division VI) added six more runs and recorded a 14-5 victory over the Lady Falcons.
With two runners on and one out in the second, Meg Shafer singled to rightfield to bring Jeanna Harris across home plate and knot the score at 1-1.
Kim French then singled to right- field to bring Kim Hallock into score. The next two batters, Steph Berger and Lori Henry, followed with an RBI double and RBI single, respectively, to give the Lady Yellowjackets a 5-1 lead.
Hallock, Harris and Jessica Cherry each stroked an RBI single later in the frame as Eldred built an 8-1 advantage.
The Family School (0-4, 0-2 Division VI) responded with two runs in the top of the third. Danielle Mazza scored on a groundout by Julia Hoonhout and Jessica Fairweather added an RBI single later in the inning.
With their lead cut to 8-3, the Lady Yellowjackets added four runs in the bottom of the third. Eldred scored those runs thanks to a Family School error and RBI singles by Cherry, Henry and Alya Kelty.
Eldred added a run in the fourth and another in the fifth.
The Lady Falcons took advantage of two Eldred errors, one in the top of the fifth and one in the sixth, to score their final two runs of the afternoon.
Shafer earned the win for Eldred. She pitched the three innings, giving up three runs and three hits. She walked four batters and struck out two.
Ashley Tice took over for Shafer in the top of the fourth. Over four innings, Tice did not give up a hit and struck out five batters. She allowed two runs and issued three walks.
Cherry and Kelty each went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. Hallock was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Family School Coach Mike Losicco noted that the game was only the fourth this season for the Lady Falcons.
“I’m happy with the way we played today,” he said. “We kept playing hard the whole game. I’m not happy that we lost, but we had a good effort.”
Losicco said that only one player on the roster, senior Caitlin Goodsite, was on the team in 2004.
Eldred Coach Jolene Porter said that the eight-run second inning her team put together was very important.
“It was the key to the game,” she said. “It was hard for them to come back once they got down by so many runs.
“This was a total team effort today and we like that,” Porter added.