Wesson shuts out Port Gibson — In only three innings, the Lady Cobras put down the Blue Wave to go 5-0 in district

Published 8:51 pm Friday, April 6, 2018

Wesson’s Lady Cobras demolished Port Gibson 15-0 in just three innings on Tuesday night. After clenching the win against the Blue Wave, the Lady Cobras move to 14-4 overall and 5-0 in district play.

According to a parent, Port Gibson did not even have a softball team last year, and most of their players had never put on a glove before this season. With this information, the outcome of the game appeared obvious.

“We came together as a team and finished out this quick game strong,” said senior pitcher Amber Brinson. “Moving forward and taking away this game, I’ll continue to work on my batting game and stick to the basics.”

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This game was over before it even began. Watching warm-ups and pre-game strategies, the extreme difference in levels of athletic ability were blatantly visible. As soon as Wesson took down the first three batters back-to-back-to-back, Wesson’s battle plan became clear.

“We came out very present at the plate, our hitting game was strong, and we built off of that,” said sophomore first basemen Shelbi Maxwell “We’ll be facing a much better pitcher next game, so we have to keep this batting game for the next game and make it better, too.”

The rules of softball, like baseball, indicate that a game must be played to at least three innings before any type of run rule can be called. With the batting game being very present for the Lady Cobras, they averaged seven to eight runs an inning. Once runners were on base, they would perform an illegal attempt to steal and were automatically called out. This was perfectly executed every inning, and Wesson ended the game after the third inning, just like they wanted.

“When we play together, we succeed,” said sophomore third baseman Katie McSweyn. “We play Florence tomorrow, and they are our biggest cross-town rivals. We want to take this win into that game and do what we need to do.”

Wesson had an excellent strategy regarding their offense. In the first inning, they made their way through the entire batting order, with each player scoring and the last three batters using an illegal steal attempt to end the inning. The second inning was similar to the first; the inning was ended by the last three batters utilizing the lead-off rule, but their goal was to score enough runs to end the game after the top of the third. Since the Lady Cobras reached 15 points in the end of the second, they only needed to prevent Port Gibson from scoring any runs. Brinson, who pitched all three innings, struck out the first two batters. The Blue Waves’ third and final batter made contact with the ball, but it was a short foul. Maxwell was paying attention, however, and made the impressive catch, receiving praise from both teams’ fans.

Wesson will hit the road to take on Franklin County on Tuesday, beginning at 6 p.m.

Story by Paden Phillips