Baylor Rolls Past St. Benedict In D-II Softball Opener

Crosby Huckabay Has Homer In Three Hits As Lady Raiders Romp, 14-4

  • Wednesday, May 25, 2016
  • John Hunt
Baylor's Cheyenne Lindsey (1) is safe at home as the throw gets away from St. Benedicts' Hailey Hill. The Lady Red Raiders opened defense of their 2015 championship with a 14-4 win over the Lady Eagles. Next up for Baylor is a Thursday showdown with cross town rival GPS in the winner's bracket finals slated for 12:30 p.m. (Eastern).
Baylor's Cheyenne Lindsey (1) is safe at home as the throw gets away from St. Benedicts' Hailey Hill. The Lady Red Raiders opened defense of their 2015 championship with a 14-4 win over the Lady Eagles. Next up for Baylor is a Thursday showdown with cross town rival GPS in the winner's bracket finals slated for 12:30 p.m. (Eastern).
photo by Dennis Norwood

MURFREESBORO – The Baylor softball team had somewhat of a slow start here at McKnight Field No. 3 Wednesday morning as they began defense of their D-II state softball crown, but they finished on a strong note and that’s probably all that matters at this point.

The Lady Red Raiders, improving to 35-4, needed just five innings to slide past St. Benedict as they scored at least one run in every inning en route to a 14-4 victory.

With the win, Baylor will face GPS on Thursday at 12:30 in the winners bracket final.

The Lady Raiders have a potent lineup that can score a bunch of runs in a hurry.  Even though they finished Wednesday’s game with 15 hits, they never had one of those typical explosive innings where they really put the pressure on the other team.

Instead, they just kept pecking away to win another game in a most convincing fashion.

Sophomore Aaliyah Henderson was the winning pitcher for Baylor as she went the distance, but she came really close to being replaced early when the Lady Eagles were doing their best to stay close.

“Our offense was fantastic.  Our defense got off to a rocky start, but played okay after that,” said Baylor coach Kelli Smith.

“It’s been a while since we played, so it was nice to get back on the field.  We lost to this same St. Benedict team in our first game here in 2013 and we didn’t want that to happen again. 

“I thought Aaliyah pitched a great game.  We was a  little tense at the start and I nearly replaced her, but I’m proud of her performance as she just kept battling.  But we’re playing well right now.  If we can just keep doing what we do best, I like our chances toward the end of the week,” Smith added.

Baylor had five of their 15 hits in the first inning when they jumped out front 4-0 before the Lady Eagles came to bat.

Cheyenne Lindsey started things off with a single, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring the first run on a groundout to short by Abby McNamara.

A.J. Johnson, Crosby Huckabay and Kamrie Rich all followed with consective singles with Huckabay’s plating the second run.  Mari Gardner then came through with a big two-out, two-run double for the biggest hit of the inning.

St. Benedict didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by that early spurt as the Lady Eagles came right back with three runs of their own.

Emma Claire Taylor singled, Cameron Caldwell walked and Grace Sweat reached on a Baylor error before Jaislyn Meredino ripped a base-clearing double to right-center.  Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, Meredino tried to stretch the double into a triple and was thrown out at third.

Lindsey scored again in the Baylor second on McNamara’s second RBI-groundout while run-scoring singles from Rich, Henderson and Trinity Liner plated three runs in the third.

Huckabay, who led off that Baylor third with a double, collected her third straight hit with a solo homer in the fourth.

Then in the fifth when Baylor finally put the icing on the cake, McNamara had an RBI-single, Johnson drove in two with a single and later scored on a passed ball while the fifth run scored on a Lady Eagle error.

St. Benedict coach Joe Pearson, at times quite aggravated by his team’s play, was somewhat laidback in his post-game comments.

“I guess you have a hard job when you have to interview someone like me after a game like that, but it was a good game for Baylor,” he began after his team’s record dropped to 17-21 for the season.

“They earned everything they got as Kelli Smith always does a great job of having them well prepared.  That three-run double in the first was huge for us, but we got thrown out at third and that just killed our rally.

“But give Baylor credit as they didn’t give up on the play and made us pay,” Pearson added.

Taylor had two hits for St. Benedict as Henderson limited the Lady Eagles to just five hits for the game.

Lindsey and Huckabay both had three hits for Baylor and both scored three times.  Johnson, Rich and Henderson all had two hits for the Lady Red Raiders.

Sweat was the losing pitcher for the Lady Eagles.

BAYLOR  413 15 – 14 15 1

ST. BENEDICT 301 00 – 4 5 2

Henderson and Rich; Sweat and Blackstock.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

Baylor's Aaliyah Henderson tossed a five-hit complete game gem in the 14-4 victory.
Baylor's Aaliyah Henderson tossed a five-hit complete game gem in the 14-4 victory.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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