EC defeats Chapel Hill Lambert meet in round robin at Home Plate

Rachel Vaughn tossed a three-hit, seven strikeout performance at Lambert
in a 4-1 win and hit a solo home run in the night game as EC defeated
Chapel Hill 5-2 at Home Plate in Peachtree City.

PEACHTREE CITY-Rachel Vaughan and Kelley Lynch continue to dominate opposing batters but the bats of the East Coweta Lady Indians would meet tough tests Friday evening against Kassidy Krupit of Lambert and Kira Morgan of Chapel Hill at Home Plate.

In the opener, a pair of critical errors in the bottom of the sixth inning led to three unearned runs as the Lady Indians defeated the Lambert Lady Indians 4-1 while Lynch retired the first 12 batters via strikeout in a 5-2 win over the Chapel Hill Lady Panthers.

The two wins give the Lady Indians a 13-0 record as they return to Region 2-7A play Tuesday at home against the Campbell Lady Spartans.

In the opening game, the Lady Indians took the lead in the bottom of the first inning as Lilly Agan led off with a single and stole second before coming home after two groundouts.

The Lady Longhorns tied the game after two outs in the top of the third inning as Krupit drilled an offering from Vaughan over the left field fence for a home run.

The home run was the first earned run surrendered by Vaughan since the August 11 game at Lassiter when she allowed a run in the second inning.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Caroline Lively was retired on a popup before Carmen Prior reached on an infield error and after Agan was retired Olivia Davis reached base on an infield single.

A double by Lynch followed to bring Prior home with the go ahead run as Davis took third and a flyball was dropped in the outfield to allow Davis and Lynch to score the other runs..

That was enough for Vaughan as she retired the side in order in the top of the seventh inning for the win.

Vaughan allowed three hits over seven innings and recorded seven strikeouts while in a losing cause Krupit limited EC to three hits and had retired 13 straight batters until the error in the sixth.

Krupit would show her power again later in the day as she had an RBI single and a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off Morgan to give the Lady Longhorns a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Lady Panthers.

As for the second EC game of the evening, the story was Lynch as she flirted with striking out every batter she faced.

However, she would need run support as Ashlynn Gunter led off the bottom of the second inning with a walk while Aniston Wright followed with a single.

A sacrifice by Vaughan moved the two into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt and Hanna Miller gave the Lady Indians a 2-0 lead with a single that brought Gunter and Wright home.

Lynch would retire more strikeouts before the Lady Indians added to the run total when Vaughan led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a shot over the center field fence despite an effort by Ivory Jones of the Lady Panthers to catch the ball.

Lynch finally allowed her defense behind to make a play or two in the top of the fifth as she induced a popup back to the pitching rubber and flyball to Miller in left field before recording her 13^th strikeout of the game.

Meanwhile, the Lady Indians added a pair of needed runs with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning as Lynch reached on an error and Gunter followed with a two-run home run over the left field.

In the top of the sixth inning, Wright took over for Lynch and breeze through the frame with a popup and two strikeouts.

However, the Lady Panthers would rally in the top of the seventh inning as an RBI by Morgan and a double steal allowed them to score both runs before Wright was able to get the final out of the game.