CARTHAGE, Mo. — It was a tale of two games for the Carthage Tigers during their 14-6 home-opening blowout victory Tuesday against Seneca within the Fair Acres Sports Complex.
Seneca plated three runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth to build a 5-1 lead, then Carthage scored four in the fourth, seven in the fifth, and two in the sixth.
Carthage improved to 4-1 already early in the season, while Seneca dropped its opener.
“We came out a little bit complacent,” Carthage coach Stephanie Ray said. “We had a big weekend, and I think once we got our feet under us again and played our softball, picked our speed up, started making plays, and we got better looks once we got through our second and third time at the plate. Things started falling into place once we got runners on.
“It took us a little bit of time to adjust. Typically, if we can make it through our lineup in the first two innings and get ourselves right in the third inning, back to the top, we can do what we do.”
Senior center fielder Landry Cochran’s RBI single started the Tigers’ scoring in the third after a slow start against Seneca freshman pitcher Abby Jamros.
Carthage sent 22 batters to the plate in the fourth and fifth against Jamros.
Ashlyn Brust, Cochran, and Alexis Smith each led the way with three hits, Ashlynn Jackson and Shelby Hegwer each had a pair, and Brooklyn Dolon-Main and Aven Willis rounded out the 15-hit attack with one each. Brust, Cochran, and Smith each doubled.
Brust scored four runs and Smith, Willis, and courtesy runner Marley Bartosh each scored twice, while Brust and Jackson each drove in two.
Addison Wallace earned the victory in relief with one run (unearned) on four hits over three innings with one strikeout and no walks.
Jamros and Kenzie French led Seneca with two hits each, Jamros collected three RBI, French scored twice, and Kahli Fields also contributed a double to Seneca’s seven hits.
Jamros took the loss, and she allowed 12 runs (six earned) on 13 hits over five innings with four strikeouts and four walks.
Carthage returns to action Friday and Saturday in the 18th annual Paige Neal/Christina Freeman Invitational Tournament hosted by Joplin.
The Tigers open Friday with pool games against Monett, Blue Springs, and Neosho.
Carthage finished second at the Morrisville Tournament during the season’s first weekend with victories against Lebanon (8-6), tournament host Marion C. Early (4-3), and Nevada (13-1) before a 7-6 loss in nine innings against Sherwood.
Carthage plays a third tournament early in the season with the Ozark Fall Festival (Sept. 9-10) coming after Central Ozark Conference games against Joplin (Sept. 6) and Ozark (Sept. 8). At that point, the Tigers will have already completed half their season.
“The last couple years, we’ve packed three tournaments right at the very beginning of our season,” Ray said. “It’s good and it’s bad, you know. Once you start playing that many games, it’s hard to throw a practice, but we do have two practices this week. We’ll continue to work on the things we need to, from the weekend and (Tuesday).
“We’ll play five games this week, then we’ll have Labor Day weekend. We come back next week, we play Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think with a young team, it gives us plenty of opportunities to get out there and see what we’re made of, move some things around, make some adjustments in our lineup, defense, and pitching, so when we get into the heart of conference, we’ll be ready to go.”
