SOFTBALL: Trinity takes down Gatewood, rained out vs. Crisp in season debut

A forceful thunderstorm cut short Trinity’s home softball opener with just an inning and a half gone on Monday afternoon. But the Lady Crusaders, who reeled off seven unanswered runs against Crisp Academy before the ominous clouds descended on Barry Walker Field, would pick up where they left off in a return to action Tuesday in Eatonton, prevailing 5-2 over Gatewood to record their first official victory of the fall. 

Opening-week action resumes for Trinity back at home on Thursday, when they’re set to host Wheeler County. 

Ellie Quick recorded three hits and one RBI to lead the Crusader lineup, which would put up all five of its runs before Gatewood could crack the scoreboard in the last of the seventh inning. 

Allie Baggett, for whom only one of the two last-chance scores for the Gators was earned, struck out and walked two apiece, and limited Gatewood to only seven hits in the complete-game pitching effort. 

Quick’s RBI single, and the first of two hits by Maddie Grace Alligood to drive in another run, made up Trinity’s two-run bid to lead off the ballgame, though some good defensive work by the Gators on a double play involving outs at first and the plate would end the inning and prevent a pair of additional runners in position to score from adding onto the lead. 

It would grow further in the third, when the Crusaders loaded the bases, and Brinley Vinson worked a Riley Roberts walk to make it 3-0, and against a new pitcher in the fourth, as Chloe Rozier sped her way to an infield single and then stole two bases to score on a Mollie Hodges sacrifice fly, making the lead 4-0. 

Vinson drove in a second run of the game with a single, scoring Alligood, to add a fifth run in the fifth inning. 

Gatewood managed to break up the shutout with two runs in the bottom of the seventh, with RBIs on a one-out single from McKenna Riser and a two-out base knock by Roberts. But a groundout to first on the very next pitch would end the game. 

Trinity finished the evening with eight total hits, and committed only one error against Gatewood’s five.