Lady Dogs Continue Their Sweep Of LC

DAYTON - Dayton's Lady Bulldogs collected hits despite the heat in Tuesday afternoon's softball game against the Liberty Christian Patriots.

Dayton beat the Patriots previously, 13-1, and, 13-4, in a doubleheader that paved the way for Tuesday's home field matchup against the same team.

"We played them last Thursday and swept them," Dayton assistant coach Desirae Jones said. "They are a pretty young team, but they are not to be overlooked."

Pitcher Samantha Harting held the Patriots without runs in the first inning and started the game off in the Lady Bulldogs' favor.

In the bottom of the first inning, Harting came up to bat and brought Sarah Phillips in from second base for the Lady Bulldogs' first run. Harting was brought in to score the second run several batters later with Shelby Smith coming in for the third run.

The Lady Bulldogs held the Patriots scoreless through the second inning, moving through the batters and toward the bottom of the second inning with a score of 3-0, Dayton.

Phillips was the first on base in the bottom of the second after four balls. She was brought in by Smith for the fourth run bringing the score to 4-0 before the inning ended.

Smith dominated the top of the fourth inning participating in all three outs, catching a line drive, a popup and a routine play at first. Smith ended the inning with only three batters brought to the plate.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Lady Bulldogs began to exploit all of the openings the Patriots left on the field. McKayla Bickelhaupt hit a line drive past the third baseman and her pinch runner, Lexie Ramirez, was able to advance on a dropped ball and ultimately come into home with a stand-up run.

The Lady Bulldogs' scoring momentum slowed in the fourth inning and no runs were brought in by either team.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Patriots made a break and scored two runs before the third out was caught. The sides switched for the bottom of the fifth with the score at 6-2.

"When Liberty came back and scored a couple of runs, we answered with more runs," Jones said.

The answering runs brought the score to 9-2 at the top of the sixth inning and despite runners making it onto base for the Patriots, the Lady Bulldogs kept their cool for three outs, keeping the Patriots from scoring.

In the top of the seventh inning, Harting pitched through the final four batters without allowing any runs to be scored, ending the game with a final score of 9-2, Dayton. The girls huddled together and cheered, then came out to the fans. In unison, they called "Thank you fans" in acknowledgement of the support they received from the bleachers.

"The girls came out and made the hits," Jones said. "That's all we could ask for ... especially with the heat."

Thursday's Game

In their playoff game against Liberty Christian last Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs showed they deserve to be in the league's Top 3.

"The girls played very focused for both games," assistant coach Desirae Jones said.

Dayton came out swinging in the first game's first inning, with pitcher Samantha Harting and Shelby Smith scoring. Smith, a senior, took the RBI crown with seven for both games on six hits. Overall, the girls had 14 hits in the first and 17 hits in the second game.

Dayton allowed only one point in the bottom of the first inning and went on to deny the Patriots any more scoring opportunities in the rest of the game while turning itself into a veritable scoring machine.

Defenders aggressively backed each other up covering bases. In the second inning, Jessica Tate made a diving tag catch to get a second-base out. Malia Frame caught a critical hit to prevent the Patriots from scoring in the fourth with two bases loaded. Throughout both games, Harting's pitching was impressive.

"Sam had two solid games pitching and the defense backed her up, committing just one error in 12 innings," Jones said.

Liberty Christian, on the other hand, had plenty of errors and Dayton took full advantage of them, finding the safety of the bases and scoring runs.

The Bulldogs opened up a dominant lead in first game's second inning, led off by Frame making it to first on a Patriots catching error. A well-placed hit from Sarah Phillips brought in Frame and a powerful Harting line drive brought in Phillips. Hits from Smith and Nicole Lambert helped bring the score to 7-1 before the end of the inning.

The Bulldogs would add six more points until the umpire applied the fifth-inning mercy rule with Dayton up by more than 10 points.

The Patriots showed more promise in the second game. Although the Bulldogs were already well ahead by the bottom of the third inning, Liberty Christian managed to score twice and its defense overcame a spate of earlier catching errors to keep Dayton scoreless in the fourth inning.

The Bulldogs retained their momentum, outscoring the Patriots, 13-4, in the second game. McKayla Bickelhaupt was the catcher until Phillips took over in the sixth inning of the second game. After Smith, Lambert had the second-highest score with five hits that included a home run, Bickelhaupt and Harting each had five, while Phillips and Frame had three and Tate and Colleen Delp each had two.

Jones said the girls will work hard for the next couple of days and get focused before their district game.

The Lady Bulldogs' next game will be at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 18 in Pasco.