By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

 

PORTSMOUTH — Softball is about pitching, hitting and defense. The Rock Hill Redwomen showed what happens when you get all three.

Rock Hill usually gets good pitching, so they added plenty of hitting and defense on Saturday as they beat the Notre Dame Lady Titans 14-4.

Sami Nixon turned in a solid pitching effort and the offense banged out 17 hits and had just two errors as the Redwomen evened their record at 2-2.

“We played better. We had both sides show up. We hit and we played defense,” said Rock Hill coach Mary Jane Harper.

Brooke Hanshaw went 3-4 with two doubles and Lindy Simpson 3-4 and a double to key the offense. BreAnna Depriest also went 3-4 while Kenzie Martin was 2-3 and Morgan Schug belted a home run for the Redwomen.

Rock Hill took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Morgan Damron singled, Depriest had a sacrifice and Chelsea Harper drove in a run with a fielder’s choice. Hanshaw grounded out as Harper scored and Schug drilled her home run.

In the second, Kenzie Martin singled and Simpson doubled to make it 4-0 and then Simpson scored on an error.

The lead went to 6-1 in the third on a singled by Harper, a double by Hanshaw and a wild pitch. The Redwomen added a run in the fourth on a singled by Damron and a double by Depriest.

Notre Dame scored single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings, but then Rock Hill erupted for seven runs in the seventh.

Depriest doubled, Harper and Hanshaw walked and a run scored on a wild pitch. Schug walked and Brooklyn Kingery went in to run.

Kaelynn Ellis, Martin, Eastham, Simpson, Depriest and Hanshaw all followed with RBI singles.

Rock Hill plays at River Valley on Monday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Rock Hill 321 100 7 = 14 17 2

Notre Dame 011 001 1 = 4 10 2

Sami Nixon and Brooke Eastham. Miranda Pauley and Katie Stephenson. W-Nixon (K-3, BB-1). L-Pauley (K-7, BB-4). 2B-RH: Lindy Simpson, Brooke Hanshaw 2, BreAnna Depriest 2; PND: Brooke Pierron. HR-RH: Holly Schug; PND: Miranda Pauley. Hitting-RH: Morgan Damron 2-5, BreAnna Depriest 3-4, Chelsea Harper 1-4, Brooke Hanshaw 3-4, Morgan Schug 1-4, Kaelynn Ellis 1-4, Kenzie Martin 2-3, Brooke Eastham 1-4, Lindy Simpson 3-4; PND: Katie Stevenson 2-4, Katie Kayser 1-4, Tori Harr 1-4, Miranda Pauley 3-4, Brooke Pierron 1-4, Katie O’Neil 1-2, Schultz 1-1.