Fort passes the test

FORT DEFIANCE — The No. 1 softball team in the Southern Valley did exactly what they wanted to on a rare Saturday afternoon game in Fort Defiance.
In an effort to gauge their abilities against a higher-caliber opponent, the Indians took on William Monroe in a battle of two possible regional tournament-bound teams. With a deceiving 6-6 overall record, the Dragons kept the Indians backed into a corner for most of the game, but Fort’s fundamental base running and powerful defense held on for a 3-0 non-district win.
“I’m proud of them,” said Fort Defiance coach Max Hill. “As young as those girls are, maybe they are better than I thought. That right there showed it. They’ve been rolling over some people, but I knew [William Monroe would] be tough.”
William Monroe put its sophomore hurler, Taylor Collier, on the mound to try and quash the Indians’ bats that recently have gone hot. Fort answered with Jessica Hogle, whose resilience on the mound helped save the Indians from suffering a non-district loss.
Hogle (7-2) took the win for the Indians but had to work for it, and wasn’t allowed any easy outs. In the top of the first with one out, a dropped third strike put the Dragons’ Jessica Morris on first. Morris almost moved into scoring position when Melanie Lamb hit a single into right field, but right fielder Jessica Clifton made a quick throw to second to force Morris out.
The Fort defense buckled down, and never allowed a William Monroe baserunner to score, forcing the Dragons to strand nine runners.
“I think it was such a close-knit game that it could have gone either way,” said William Monroe coach Salita Sullivan. “A couple things we should have done, and the same with them, it could have gone either way. Unfortunately, when you leave [nine runners] on, the well is going to run dry.”
The extra defense was needed on Saturday, with the Indians’ offense struggling to get things going with Collier on the mound. Clifton was the only batter to record multiple hits and Collier sat down five Indian batters.
“I think we just worked as a team and did what we needed to do,” Clifton said. They were like what we will face in the region and it just shows us that we can stick with people.”
In the first three and two-thirds innings, Collier only allowed one hit. The Indians’ lone offensive strike came in the first inning when leadoff batter Tiffany Lockridge hit a single, but she was picked off trying to steal second.
“She is a sophomore and she is tough,” Sullivan said. “She has a great two-seam fastball, and I could have asked for a better game from her. She’s good for someone young — you wouldn’t even know it was her first year on varsity.”
With the score knotted at zero in the top of the second, Hogle and the Indians almost allowed the Dragons to break onto the scoring board. With no outs on the board, William Monroe’s Samantha Lawson hit a high fly ball to left-center field, that was dropped by the center fielder, allowing Lawson to reach first. Hogle walked Collier and Kaitlyn Roach bunted to put a man on third and second with one out.
“The first couple of innings I was hitting my spots pretty good, but sometimes they just hit them,” Hogle said. “Defense was really good. We have a really good defense, and when they come together they are really good.”
Hogle stood her ground and struck out the next two batters. The Indians pitcher finished the game with six strikeouts.
Fort Defiance finally broke onto the scoreboard in the fourth inning. With two outs, Courtney Allman hit a single and then stole second. Brittany Davidson was at the plate and she ripped a single to bring Allman home from second.
“That was key right there, ’cause 1-0 pretty much is the ball game,” Hill said.
Fort scored one run in each of the next two innings, with Clifton scoring on an error at third in the fifth and Allman scoring on a sacrifice grounder from Lindsey Shifflett, making the score 3-0.
In the seventh, William Monroe (6-6, 3-1 Jefferson) made one last effort to break their goose egg.
Hogle sat down Roach to start the inning, but Brittany Shifflett hit a single and Lauren Thompson reached first on an error. Brittany Conley hit a grounder to Allman at shortstop. Allman made a heads-up play to tag Brittany Shifflett on her way to third, which kept the Indians out of trouble.
“If we can play like this, and the ball keeps going our way, we are going to be tough,” Hill said. “I know we have a couple of tough games coming up. We play TA and Spotswood [in the] next week or two.”
The Indians (9-2, 4-0) are one game ahead of Stuarts Draft in the Southern Valley District regular season title hunt with four games remaining in the district and will host Harrisonburg on Tuesday in non-district action.