If pitching was on the ACT, Addyson Horne would have earned a perfect score. Horne has blossomed into one of the most dominant pitchers in high school softball.
Coming off of a 15 strike out game on Thursday, Horne piled up the K’s once more by tallying 16 in the first game of a Saturday double header against the Mansfield Christian Flames. The start time to game one was pushed back to 1 p.m. due to many players from both teams taking the ACT. But, that didn’t seem to throw the Big Red out of rhythm.
Big Red head coach Troy Keene said before that game, “this is going to be a pitcher duel. We have our best and they have their best. It is going to come down to one big play or one small mistake.”
He was right, as both pitchers dominated the entire game. Mansfield Christian had a flamethrower of their own on the bump as Lexi Falde piled up the strikeouts as well with 11. The one big play that Coach Keene foreshadowed came in the bottom of the first with two outs and Plymouth’s number three batter, Brooke Thornsberry, stepping to the plate.
With the American flag whipping in the wind towards the left field fence, Thornesberry sent a chest high fastball deep over the left field wall for a solo homerun. It was her first on the season. And the Big Red would take the early 1-0 lead. It would prove to be the big play that would decide the outcome of the ball game.
Both pitchers would then settle in as the next five innings would go scoreless, but that does not mean that there wasn’t any drama.
The Flames would seem to find themselves on the verge of a big rally thanks to Plymouth errors. At one point in the 4th inning, the Flames had the bases loaded with no outs. Horne would use the opportunity to show just what she could do under pressure as she struck out the next three batters to stop the bleeding.
Horne would even achieve the very rare four strike outs in one inning feat as a couple of dropped third strikes would lead to Flames base runners. It seemed like every time the Flames were poised to score, Horne would turn on her best on her way to causing the Flames to strand 7 base runners over the course of the entire game.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth inning that there would be more scoring action as the Big Red would produce a couple of insurance runs on a Haven Keene squeeze bunt play and a Horne RBI single to help her own cause.
The Flames would not go down with out a fight. In the top of the seventh they found themselves in a scoring opportunity situation as Falde found herself on base thanks to a dropped fly ball in left field. After a ground out, a single to center by Rachel Pfeiffer, and a strike out, the Flames saw runners on second and third with two outs and a glimmer of hope.
Until, a passed ball that was scooped up by Big Red catcher Morgan Fletcher and flung towards home plate to Horne as she tagged out the runner trying to score. On yet another big play started by a small mistake, the Big Red would take home the game one victory over the Flames.
Horne finished the game with 16 strikeouts with an astonishing zero walks and just two hits. She got 77 pitches over the plate for strikes. She also finished the game as the only player to collect two or more hits at the plate.
Falde finished the day with 11 strikeouts, two walks, 3 runs on just four hits, and 55 pitches over for strikes.
The Flames picked up the victory in the second game 5-2 to earn the split.
Box Score
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Runs Hits Errors
Mansfield Christian 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Plymouth 1 0 0 0 0 2 X 3 4 8
Big Red head coach Troy Keene said before that game, “this is going to be a pitcher duel. We have our best and they have their best. It is going to come down to one big play or one small mistake.”
