Senior Night was a wash for the Wellsville Lions softball team, but the girls got a game in with Hornell, and pitched a shutout.
By CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com
WELLSVILLE — It took a little bit of time for the Lady Lions of Wellsville to get their engines firing, but once they did, there was no letting off the gas.
Over the course of the last four innings of play, the temperature gradually rose at the plate until the alarm bells sounded off in the bottom of the sixth inning, as their offensive five-alarm fire resulted in a six-inning conclusion against archrival Hornell at Tullar Field in a 12-0 shutout on Monday.
The two storied adversaries went toe-to-toe in an early defensive battle out of the gate, with each defense standing tall through two scoreless frames of play behind the guidance of their pitchers — Alexis Smith for Hornell, and Kennedy Perry for the Lady Lions (14-2).
After handing out a third straight goose egg to open the frame, the hosts in orange transitioned that momentum to the plate, where they broke the ice in style with two big hits.
Paid in part by an Averee Palmatier double and an Ayla Faulkner triple, the defending Class B State Champions went on to take a 1-0 lead that continued to blossom over time. In the bottom of the second, Palmatier came through again with Makenna Dunbar and Kennedy Perry both occupying the bases, as she drove both of them in on a bases-clearing double to triple their advantage over the Lady Red Raiders.
With three more strikeouts under her belt through the fourth inning of defense, the Lady Lions continued to break it open with four more runs in the bottom half of action — three of those runs coming on three RBI doubles off the bats of Dunbar, Perry and Lindsay Stuck.
To finish off the victory, the home team scratched across five more runs to force the 12-run rule into effect, with Perry ending the game with her second double in walk-off fashion.
In total, Wellsville collected their 12 runs off 14 total hits, with six different Lady Lions all posting at least two. Leading the charge was both Dunbar and Perry, each recording three, including two doubles and three RBI. Palmatier had two doubles and two RBI, while Ayla Faulkner, Natalie Adams and Lindsay Stuck each had two hits.
In the circle, the win was all Perry’s to claim, as she surrendered just one hit while fanning 12 Lady Red Raiders at the plate. For Hornell, Lara Connors had the team’s lone hit.
Hornell 000 000 – 0 1 2
Wellsville 001 245 – 12 16 2
HOR – Alexis Smith (LP) (CG) and Reese Harwood.
WLSV – Kennedy Perry (WP) (CG, 12K) and Lindsay Stuck.
