Lady Bears rumble past FCS

MT. JULIET — Mt. Juliet played small ball to build a big lead early Monday as the Lady Bears beat Friendship Christian 10-1 at MJ League Park.
The Lady Bears scored six first-inning runs and added three in the second. Four of the Lady Bears' 12 hits were bunts while the Lady Commanders committed seven errors in the first couple of innings.
"It should have been six or seven [hits]," Friendship coach Erica Powell said after her Class A Lady Commanders fell to 19-6. "Half were infield hits. But they put the ball in play and we didn't field it. We held the ball and let the ball fall between two fielders. That counts as mental errors."
After the bunts, bloopers and bleedes, Amy Buwalda blasted a two-run homer in the second to chase starter Hailey Rutledge, who was charged with only three earned runs. Carrie Fry held Mt. Juliet to a run on three hits the rest of the way.
Despite the score, Mt. Juliet coach Kacey Pedigo was impressed by last year's Class A third-place team.
"They were impressive," Pedigo said after last year's AAA runners up moved to 23-6. "Sometimes, you score six in the first, teams quit and [the Lady Commanders] didn't. It was evident they were there to play ball."
Shelby Morris pitched the first three innings for Mt. Juliet, allowing a third-inning RBI single by Rutledge which scored Kelcey Lee. She struck out four before Virginia Tech-signee Kenzie Roark notched nine punchouts over the final four frames.
Buwalda drove in four runs on three hits while Hannah Irwin drove in a pair of scores on two hits. Merrick Martin singled twice, doubled and scored three times while Caroline Mason knocked in a run on a couple of hits. Karli Rush drove in a run on a hit while Bijan Stegall beat out a bunt single.
Rutledge racked up half of Friendship's four hits while Lee and Camille Cross each singled.
Roark played hours after a shooting massacre at Tech's Blacksburg, Va., campus left 33 dead and 29 wounded.
"It concerned Kenzie," Pedigo said of her ace pitcher. She was able to contact someone and found out the softball team was okay."
Both teams return to action today. The Lady Commanders, who were rained out of Saturday's games at the Plateau Invitational in Crossville, will host East Robertson at 6 p.m. Mt. Juliet will travel to District 9-AAA rival Gallatin for a 4:30 p.m. contest.