Menu
Higgins puts clamps on NHS in its lid-lifter
Rained out the day before at Clinton, the Nevada High School varsity softball team opened the 2007 season at home against McDonald County Tuesday afternoon, the second-best team in the Southwest Conference behind Webb City last season.
Playing against an upper-tier team translated to facing one of the conference's top returning pitchers in the Lady Mustangs' burly intimidator, Tara Higgins.
So who could blame Nevada if it was a little timid at the start?
Higgins, grunting with every pitch, quieted the Lady Tigers' bats in a three-hit shutout as McDonald County registered an 11-0 win at Bushwhacker Field. The 10-run rule went into effect after five innings.
"Tara is really good," Nevada head coach Brandi Thomsen said of Higgins, a right-hander, who had nine strikeouts. "She has a lot of speed and very tough out there. Her and Webb City's pitchers are very good in our conference.
"The biggest thing for us at the beginning was that we were a little nervous and a little tentative, and we didn't take advantage of pitches we should have. We were looking for that perfect pitch, which they weren't giving us."
Webb City's Nicole Hudson, perhaps the league's marquee pitcher, is out three weeks with a stress fracture in her hand and is unable to pitch, She injured her hand swinging her bat. That leaves Higgins with much of the conference spotlight for herself, for now. Higgins totaled strikeouts 265 last season, and fanned 18 on Monday in an 8-0 victory over Aurora.
The Lady Tigers found themselves in a 4-0 hole after one inning and could never cut into McDonald County's lead. The Lady Mustangs also scored a trio of runs in each of the next two innings and tacked on a single run in the fourth.
The hard-throwing Higgins was the enforcer, going right after Nevada's hitters, although the Lady Tigers started making contact against her from the third inning on.
"Towards the end of the game, (the Lady Tigers) started to hit what (Higgins) was giving us and did a much better job of putting the ball in play," Thomsen said. "For us to put the ball in play as many times as we did and actually get the hits that we did, I'm pleased."
Nevada stranded two baserunners in the second -- Shawna Alkire and Kara Kitsmiller -- both of whom drew walks. It also left one baserunner in the third when Megan Ray, who singled and stole both second and third, was left stranded.
The Lady Tigers' best opportunity came in the fourth. Alkire and Kitsmiller hit consecutive one-out singles, but they were left on base after the next two batters were retired to end the inning.
"The first half of the game, I was not all that excited with," Thomsen said. "Nervous jitters or whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant, but the second half of the game was what I had hoped for."
Nevada's lead-off hitter, Katelyn Brier, was robbed of a hit on a line drive in her final at-bat. In the field, Kitsmiller had a web gem, robbing a McDonald County hitter of a home run by reaching back and snaring a long drive at the fence in left.
Sophomore pitcher Rachel Kennedy went the distance for Nevada. She gave up only one run over the final two innings as the Lady Mustangs did nearly all of their damage early.
"She did good," Thomsen said of Kennedy. "We tend to wait until the end to do what we do. They're not going to give up, and I just think they were tentative during the first couple innings."
McDonald County totaled 10 hits, including a two-run double in the first by Tessa Welch. Higgins had a sacrifice fly in the second, and Layne Walters singled in a run in the third to highlight its surge.
Kailey Harvey of the Lady Mustangs homered over the fence down the left-field line, a solo shot in the seventh, to cap the scoring.
Brandi Campbell, Walters and Welch each had two hits for McDonald County.