Edison edges Harrison Central in Lady Huskies’ season opener

Edison took Husky turf March 22 for the Lady Huskies’ season opener.

The Lady Wildcats opened the scoring in the top of the first with a two-out inside-the-park home run by Sophia Henderson. The Huskies put two runners on base in the bottom of the inning with singles by Denali Stull and Mikayla Pelegreen. Both runners were stranded to end the inning.

The Wildcats encountered the same situation in the top of the second. In Edison’s half of the third, the Wildcats loaded the bases with one out. Alivia Hanlin walked, forcing in a run. Harrison Central was able to end the inning with no further damage.

Central cut the deficit in half by scoring one run in the bottom of the third. Kara Blackburn walked with one out and advanced to third when Lillian Thomas drilled a ground ball to third base, which created an error by the Wildcat third baseman. Thomas advanced to second on the same error. Stull cracked a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Blackburn and sending Thomas to third.

The score remained the same until the Huskies’ sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, Pelegreen reached on an error. Bailey Smith followed with a walk, forcing Pelegreen to second. Kamryn Crothers followed with a groundout, which advanced Pelegreen to third and courtesy runner Emma Palmer to second. Kamryn Campbell then grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Pelegreen with the tying run.

The Wildcats scored two in the top of the seventh. The Huskies countered with two runs of their own, tying the game. Pinch hitter Maddy Johnson led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to right field. Blackburn followed with a single, allowing Johnson to advance to second. Stull scored Johnson with a double to center field, and Blackburn scored on an error, tying the score at 4-4.

Edison again scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 6-4 lead. The Huskies were unable to answer, leading to a final score of 6-4.

The Wildcats outhit the Huskies 10-5. Both teams were charged with three errors. Mikayla Pelegreen was on the mound for the Huskies and took the loss. Bristol Leanza earned the victory for the Wildcats.

“You have to have more hits than errors. We have to make the routine fly ball, grounds. I thought Mik Pelegreen pitched her guts out. She wasn’t feeling real well and she did everything she could to get the team a win. We just didn’t back her up with the hits and we didn’t make the plays behind her that we needed to make to win the game. If we make two or three of those plays that are errors, we win the game, probably 5-1. I told them not to feel sorry for themselves. We have to get back at it and get Indian Creek on Monday afternoon,” Coach Darrin Young said.