By Erik Harris
TRUSSVILLE – It was Hewitt-Trussville’s first time taking the field as the No. 1 Class 7A team in the state, and the Lady Huskies lived up to the billing at home Monday night.
A no-hitter by pitcher Bailey Murphy coupled with an opportunistic swing by Abigail Inman was enough to run-rule Class 4A No. 2 Cordova 11-0 in six innings.
With Murphy denying the visitors any offensive hope, the Lady Huskies (20-2) took an 8-0 lead into the bottom half of the sixth. Hewitt-Trussville’s bats took over from there.
Abigail Inman
photo courtesy of Hewitt-Trussville Softball
Senior Taylor Beshears got the sixth started with a sacrifice fly into right, scoring Ashley Cash to increase the lead to nine runs. An Amber Hammonds walk sent Inman to the dish with two runners aboard, and the freshman had no intentions of allowing a seventh frame. She had birthday candles to blow out.
Inman got an inside fastball and introduced it to the left-center field fence, where the No. 1-ranked baseball team cheered from the bed of three pickup trucks. The two-run double ended the contest in six thanks to the mercy rule, and gave Inman an early jump on her birthday celebration.
“Oh my gosh, it was perfect,” Inman said. “I was just backing up a little bit because she’s been throwing that all night, so I was just waiting on it.”
Murphy said that going upstairs kept the Lady Blue Devils off balance in the box.
“If that didn’t really work, I went with changeup and the umpire was calling the corners, so I worked with that, too,” Murphy said.
A walk to start the fifth inning was the only thing separating the lefty from a perfect game, but it wouldn’t shake her. She followed up her only blemish with three consecutive strikeouts.
She worked with a lead pretty much all the way through thanks to some sloppy Cordova defense and sharp base running by the Lady Huskies.
Hewitt-Trussville scored three of its runs on passed balls, the first of which came in the first inning. Following a five-run second, they plated two more on another passed ball in the third. Cordova’s catcher left the game with an injury shortly thereafter.
“Our kids really work hard at playing the game at full speed, so any time opportunity arises and we get those mistakes, our kids do a great job of taking advantage of it,” said Hewitt-Trussville head coach Karen Johns.
