Lanoue tosses 1-hitter, triples as TMB opens season with 20-0 romp over RRC/WWG
The Panther softball team wasn’t perfect in its season opener against Red Rock Central last Friday, but they were close.
TMB hit the ball hard, played good defense and got some good pitching in a 21-0, 3-1/2-inning rout over the Falcons.
“Usually we have a pretty good game against these guys, so this was not what I expected,” TMB coach Karl Campbell said.
The Panthers (1-0) jumped out early against RRC/WWG starter Natalie Wahl on their new-look north field at the Tracy City Softball Complex and never looked back.
TMB’s Nos. 1-4 hitters in the lineup — Braelynn Kirk, Alli Dolan, Melaina Ankrum and Gretchen Lanoue — all reached base four times and scored each time they got on. They walked seven times between the four of them.
Lanoue had three hits, and Ankrum had two, as did Piper Freeburg who scored twice. Dolan had a pair of hits and along with, Ankrum and Lanoue, drove in three runs.
Other hits came from Kirk, Dolan, Ankrum (double), Aliyah Loftness, Lanoue, Bella Martinez and Rosa Vang. The Panthers were the beneficiaries of nine walks.
“I was really happy with how we hit the ball,” Campbell said. “(Assistant coach Gena Peterson) has been working a lot wth the girls inside, and we hit the ball well. Not many poor at-bats.”
“We’ve been working in the cage so much the last five weeks … we just had the mindset of attacking,” Lanoue added.
Lanoue started and went the short distance. But it didn’t start well, as she walked Natalie Wahl on four pitches to start the game, and the season.
“I was just thinking, it was just one batter,” Lanoue said. “I can do better; I just needed to knock the rust of a little bit.”
Lanoue allowed just one hit during a second inning in which the Falcons mounted their biggest threat. RRC/WWG loaded the bases with two outs, but the sophomore slinger escaped without allowing a run. She struck out five, including the final three hitters she faced in the top of the fourth.
“Gretch threw really well,” said Campbell. “She bounced back from that walk, so that was really good for her.”
TMB played clean ball the whole game, and even when they did have a miscue on the basepaths or on defense, it never hurt them.
“Even when we did make a mistake — a base running mistake or a defensive mistake — we played through it,” Campbell said. “We had a base running blunder early in the game … and we got out of that one. The resilience that we saw today is something we’re going to have to have this year.”
RRC/WWG 000 0 — 0 1 3 TMB 5(11)4 x — 20 13 1 Lanoue (W) and Freeburg. 3B: Lanoue, Dolan. 2B: Ankrum.
SACF: Loftness
