Andrews – To hear senior catcher Annie Kate Dalton describe it, hitting two homeruns in the same inning isn’t too complicated. Despite getting two hits in her first three at-bats in the Lady Bulldogs’ 20-2 win over Andrews on April 20, she wasn’t satisfied.
“My at-bats before that, I wasn’t seeing the ball too well,” Dalton said. “I finally got sick and tired of it, those last two at-bats I told myself just see the ball. See ball, hit ball and hit it hard.”
Both round-trippers came in the top of the seventh inning in eerily similar at-bats. In both at-bats, the right-handed batting Dalton hit a fly ball down the left-field line that hooked foul. Her first homerun was a two-run shot to straight-away center, while her second was a two-run blast that went the opposite way over the right-field fence.
Dalton, who has been a star since her freshman year, is once again on a tear for Murphy. The University of North Carolina commit is batting .636 with eight homers and 29 runs batted in.
“This success is not a surprise to me when it comes to Annie Kate,” Murphy head coach Thomas Nelson said of Dalton. “She’s one of those kids who works so hard that you expect her to do great things.”
Dalton’s home runs came when the game was well in hand for the Lady Bulldogs, who obliterated the Wildcats 26-3 the previous day. This rivalry game was just slightly more competitive.
Murphy was winning 10-2 before Andrews ran out of pitching and the Lady Bulldogs tacked on 10 more runs in the top of the seventh. After beating Cherokee 16-3 on Thursday, Murphy is now 9-1 overall and in the Smoky Mountain Conference.
After scoring a combined 24 runs in the first two innings against Andrews on April 19, Murphy settled for only six in this game. Dalton’s RBI double in the top of the first scored leadoff hitter Sanai Wilson, a freshman playing in place of the Lady Bulldogs usual starting shortstop, Grace Nelson.
Dalton would advance to third on a wild pitch, then scored when Riley Dockery reached on an error. After back-to-back walks, freshman Reagan Peterson singled home Dockery and pitcher Jersey Schwalm to give Murphy a 4-0 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs batted around in the first, and Wilson led off the second inning with another single and stole second before scoring on an RBI single by Kaiya Pickens. Pickens would later score on a Maddison Seabolt RBI single.
Players like Wilson and Seabolt are emblematic of the youth movement that’s brewing behind Murphy’s three excellent seniors. While Dalton, Nelson and Pickens have been solid all year, they’re the only seniors on the roster.
Wilson made her first start of the season against Andrews, while Seabolt and Peterson have started every game. Dockery and Schwalm are both sophomores and have been mainstays, with Dockery batting cleanup and Schwalm pitching all but one of Murphy’s innings this year.
“Those kids have stepped up well,” Nelson said.
Despite the two blowout losses, Andrews head coach Matthew Mealer was able to find some positives. The Lady Wildcats have only two players who play travel softball, and multiple upperclassmen on the roster are playing softball for the first time since middle school.
Trailing 10-0 going into the bottom of the fifth, an RBI double by Emily Mealer and an RBI single by Summer Garrett helped Andrews avoid a mercy rule loss, and the Lady Wildcats had runners reach base in each of the previous four innings but was unable to capitalize.
“The girls fought and battled the entire game,” Mealer said. “We went seven innings with them. I can’t remember the last time Andrews went seven innings with Murphy in a softball game.”