Friday, May 6, 2005

Lawrence's law

Culver standout Jackie Lawrence homers,
strikes out 17 to down New Prairie

By KEN PETERSON
Staff Writer

NEW CARLISLE — Giving Culver Girls Academy softball standout Jackie Lawrence a second chance at the plate comes with a heavy price.

Thursday afternoon, Lawrence made New Prairie pay dearly
 in its non-conference battle at Ziolkowski Field.

The junior belted a one-out, two-run homer over the left-field fence to pace the Class 3A No. 7 Eagles (15-1) to a 4-0 win
over the No. 10 Cougars (14-4).

The home run came after Lawrence had hit a foul ball down the left-field line that squirted out of the glove of left fielder Shaina Smith.

"We can be pretty good at times, but we're not good enough to give people second chances," New Prairie coach Tim Scott said. "Anytime we've done it all year, it's killed us."

Lawrence also drove in an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh. She was also her usual self on the mound, walking three while striking out 17.

Of the 17 strikeouts, only four were non-swinging strikeouts.

"We got after it," Scott said. "We talked about being aggressive and for the most part we were. And a couple of us were a little overaggressive. A couple of times, we were going seven or eight pitches deep, fouling some off. In the first inning we swung at a couple of high ones. After that, we made her throw strikes."

The top half of the Culver lineup accounted for most of the damage. All four Eagles runs came from their top three hitters (Alexia Clay, Randy O'Neill and Lawrence) and the upper half of the Eagles’ lineup had six of its eight hits.

"I think we're getting better as a team every game," Culver Academy coach Jen Mascari said. "We're getting stronger and we still at times make some errors, but that is going to happen. But I do think we're getting better every game as a team."

After the first inning, Cougar pitcher Becky Sheedy gave up two hits over the next five innings. Her defense bailed her out in the third when an attempted suicide squeeze failed and caught Clay in a rundown before being tagged out.

"They hit a couple of balls hard on her, but overall she did a nice job," Scott said of Sheedy. "She had some pressure situations she worked out of."

New Prairie had few opportunities to score on Lawrence. In the fifth, Missy Vascil singled and Katie Sheedy drew a one-out walk. But Brittany Curless and Becky Sheedy both struck out to end the inning. In the seventh, Erica Wulczynski walked and Vascil singled. But Lawrence settled down and recorded three straight strikeouts to end the game.