Saturday, September 15, 2018

Carly Rinehart Fans 13 as North Harrison JV Stops East Harrison

Carly Rinehart fanned 13 East Harrison batters as North Harrison’s JV stopped East Harrison 2-0 in the second round of the HDC Tournament. North Harrison got a bye in the first round along with Tri-County. The field was down to six teams, as Mercer canceled their schedule after a few games and Newtown-Harris cooped with Grundy County in softball this year.

North Harrison coach Brandon Craig held out all but two of his starters for Saturday’s tournament, only playing Carly Rinehart and Deva Wallace from his varsity squad. Rinehart did not play in Albany (shoulder). North Harrison ran into a strong pitcher in Nicole Easum and a steady fielding contingent; They hit several balls that were hard, but right at people. But Rinehart was stronger, bringing the high heat and mixing speeds effectively.

The Shamrocks manufactured runs in the first and third innings and made it stand up against the Bobcats. In the first, Rinehart hit a shot off Kennison Roberts’ glove at third for a base hit. Deva Wallace hit a hard grounder to short to advance her to second, Sally Briggs grounded out to Easum to advance her to third, and she came home on a wild pitch.

The remaining run came in the third inning when Rinehart again hit a pop fly between third and short that dropped in. Deva Wallace grounded out to short, but Rinehart came all the way around to third on the play and came home when Sally Briggs’ pop fly over short dropped in for a run.

On the other side, Rinehart, who has already thrown a perfect game and a no-hitter in back to back games, made a bid for another perfect game, striking out nine straight Bobcats from the second to the fourth innings. East Harrison finally got on base in the fifth when Alyssa Olson walked and then got their first hit when Kennison Roberts hit a roller back to the mound that took a bad hop and got away from Rinehart to put the tying runs on first and second with one out in the fifth. But then Rinehart settled down and got Easum called out on strikes and Marissa Meek to tap back to the mound.

North Harrison got two hits in the fifth and two more in the sixth, but couldn’t put anything together to bring them in. In the seventh, East Harrison made a bid to tie it up as Ashten Thompson hit it hard, but right at first baseman Hunter Stevens for the first out. Camie Vaughn hit one hard into right field for a base hit, but then Rinehart froze Olson for a called third strike for the second out. Kennison Roberts hit a tricky grounder up the first base line, but first baseman Hunter Stevens came off, picked it up, and flipped it to second baseman Addie Slaughter hustling over to cover first to end the game.

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