FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Minus a rough final inning, Louisville Lady Sluggers Wathen proved again on Saturday why they’re one of the top 16u teams in the inaugural P5 fastpitch event.
Going up against Stars National Gleason in the two teams’ final P5 fastpitch game, the Lady Sluggers produced multiple runs in each of their three offensive innings, leading to an 8-5 four-inning victory at Red Rocks Field, located on the Triple Crown Sports campus.
Louisville assistant coach Kim Dunlap Borders credited her group’s strong beginnng, which featured two scoreless innings from starting pitcher Tori Payne.
“We set the tone with our pitching,” Dunlap Borders said. “Then, we came out and scored (two) in that first inning. I think that's just the biggest thing for us, setting the tone early, making sure that we're doing the little things right and then continuing to execute through the game.”
Louisville, which finished the three-day event at 4-1, led Stars National Gleason 8-0 after three innings before allowing five runs in the top half of the fourth. Fortunately for the Lady Sluggers, who dropped to 2-3, the game was called thereafter due to time.
In the bottom of the first, Payne helped her own cause by bringing home Emily Whitwell with a double down the left-field line. Her RBI knock came one pitch after fouling a ball off her ankle, but the class of 2025 University of South Florida commit was able to regroup and get the job done.
“After I totally hit myself in my ankle on the second strike, I was just trying to see the ball to contact, hit it hard and do anything I can to put the ball in play,” Payne said.
Third baseman Ashtyn Holbrook then scored Payne with an RBI single, giving Louisville an early 2-0 lead. Holbrook, an uncommitted class of 2025 prospect from Kentucky, finished the game with a team-high three RBI after delivering a two-run double in the third inning.
“This has been one of my best weeks at the plate,” Holbrook said. “Last week, I struggled a lot, so I was hitting every day at home. Really, what I think when I get to bat is just, ‘Hit the crap out of the ball.’”
Louisville’s two second-inning runs came courtesy of leadoff hitter Hadley Borners, who drove in Delaney Jones and Rylee Limberger with a two-RBI single. In the Lady Sluggers’ four-run third inning, Hadley’s two-run double was followed by an RBI triple from Kenzie Gulley and an RBI single from Jones.
That’s when the self-inflicted chaos began for Louisville. After walking the leadoff batter, the Lady Sluggers committed three errors and hit three batters en route to allowing five fourth-inning runs. Stars National Gleason’s Emily Russ (bases-loaded HBP), Brooke Donoforio (sac fly) and Emersyn Presutty (HBP) each tallied an RBI.
Both Stars National Gleason and Louisville Lady Sluggers Wathen are scheduled to play in the Triple Crown Sports Colorado 4th of July event.
