KP Warriors Softball Wins Against Mansfield

The King Philip Warriors won a very close game against the Mansfield Hornets Monday afternoon.

At the bottom of the first, Mansfield junior Kelly English hit a triple to bat in the first run of the game, but couldn't follow it up. In the next inning, Hornet pitcher Tricia Hanson managed to keep the Warriors at bay, leaving three runners on base at the end of the inning with a ground out at second base.

At the top of the third, KP had the bases loaded with no outs. Tori Constantin hit a ground ball to third to bring in Anna Kelly to home on an error, tying the game, but Hanson struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Hornets just couldn't seem to get more hits. The southeasterly wind was pulling a lot of balls foul for left-handed hitters, and ground outs were a big problem. Mansfield was able to keep tied with the Warriors until the top of the sixth, when Anna Kelley hit a triple to left field, knocking in Alyssa Siegmann to home. After that, Oliva Godin hit a double to bring in Kelley.

In the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, the Hornets were unable to score any additional runs. KP pitcher Meg Rico only allowed a runner on base through a walk, with three strikeouts, two groundouts and an infield pop fly in those innings.

Head Coach Jim Leonard said he felt the Warriors could have done better, and there were some real issues for the team to deal with. He said they had left 11 runners on base throughout the game, and added that they needed to work on getting more base hits.

It was a tight ballgame,” Leonard said. “These are the games you have to learn to win throughout the season and make sure you can perform in the tight spots, rather than when you’re up by a bunch. There were a lot of running errors as well. It’s something for us to work on at practice.”