The Gilmer High Lady Cats are back at full strength and back in the win column.
GHS took the field last Monday with their regular starting lineup in tact for the first time since the first game of the season. The Cats traveled to West Hall and delivered losses of 15-2 and 8-0 to the Spartans.
Gilmer ended the week Thursday at home against the Lumpkin County Indians. GHS was plagued by errors and unable to come up with timely hits in an 8-3 loss.
Monday’s game one win over West Hall was Gilmer’s best offensive performance of the season. The Cats’ tallied 17 hits and six Cats had multihit performances, which included Maddie Wright (four hits) and Taylor Elliott (three), while Macy Hamby, Carly Chadwick, Jocelyn Birko and Zoey Woody all had two each.
GHS got things rolling with two runs in the first inning and added three more in the third. However, it was their continued offensive production in the next two innings that allowed the Cats to bring the game to an early end.
Hamby set the offense in motion in the fourth. She led off the frame with a double and scored when Chadwick reached base on an ensuing Spartan error. Consecutive singles by Birko and Woody loaded the bases. Another WHHS error made the score 7-0 in Gilmer’s favor.
Wright then slashed a single to left to score two more. Elliot’s two-out double gave GHS a 10-0 advantage.
Base hits to the outfield by Lady Cats Birko, Woody and Alana Miltiades loaded the bases for GHS with one out in the fifth inning. Jacie Bennett and Wright drew back-to-back walks for two more runs. Elliott had some more two-out magic left in her bat and lined a three-run double into the gap.
Down 15-0, the Spartans were able to muster two runs but needed six more to keep the game going as GHS claimed its first win of the season.
Both Wright and Elliott knocked in four runs, Chadwick had three RBIs, and Bennett, Miltiades and Tori Hughes had one apiece.
Woody got the shutout victory. Both of West Hall’s runs were unearned and she struck out one.
GHS also run-ruled WHHS in game two. A Hamby single and Chadwick double scored the first run in the second inning. A Birko single was followed by Bennett’s two-run double to center for a quick 3-0 advantage.
A two-out bases loaded single by Hughes added the Cats’ fourth run in the fourth, and the runs kept coming in the fifth. A Hamby single and consecutive walks by Chadwick and Birko loaded the bases. Woody’s base hit to center plated another run, and when A.J. Allen reached on an error, Birko scored to give GHS a 7-0 lead.
Gilmer plated the required eighth run when Wright grounded out to second base. When WHHS had no answer in its half of the fifth, Gilmer snagged its second win of the day.
Hamby had three hits for Gilmer, and Woody was there for to two more. Woody limited the Spartans to two hits in three innings. Hamby tossed the fourth and fifth innings and struck out four.
Gilmer’s good fortunes ended Friday at home against Lumpkin. Six errors on routine plays led to seven unearned Indian runs. GHS outhit Lumpkin 10-5, but the Cats left six base runners stranded in scoring position.
A pair of errors spotted LCHS two runs in the top of the first. GHS got a run back in its half of the inning when a Hamby single to center scored Hughes. In the second, Gilmer evened the score with a bases loaded single by Elliott. Gilmer was unable to score more runs on the hit after a base running error.
The Cats took the lead in the fourth inning. Birko led off with a single to center before Bennett doubled. GHS maintained its 3-2 edge until the sixth.
Following a pair of off walks to start the ining, a GHS error tied the score at 3-all. With two outs, a fly ball dropped in the infield for another run before a bloop to left moved LCHS ahead, 5-3.
The Indians padded their lead in the seventh. With two runners in scoring position, a fielder’s choice scored a sixth run before two more errors tallied Lumpkin’s final two runs of the game.
Hamby pitched seven innings and struck out five, walked six and allowed one earned run. Wright, Elliott, Birko and Bennett all had two hits for GHS.
Gilmer is 2-9 overall and continued its season Tuesday at Cherokee Bluff.