Lexington Catholic sweeps Lafayette in district rivalry between two of softball’s best
Lexington Catholic, for the second year in a row, swept Lafayette in the two-game regular-season series between two of the best high school softball teams in the state.
The No. 11 Knights won 7-4 Tuesday over the No. 8 Generals at Lafayette, fending off a late rally from their 43rd District rivals.
A year ago, LexCath (10-4, 3-0 in district) won both regular-season battles and the 43rd District championship against Lafayette only to lose the 11th Region title game to the Generals to end their year. While that unfortunate track record might be a slight concern, the Knights can only play the game in front of them, LexCath Coach Emery Emmert said.
“If history tells us anything, it’s probably not a great position to be in,” Emmert said, laughing, “But, no, you try to win every game. We go after every game. Hopefully, when we play them again, we’ll go after that.”
Senior second baseman Sara Prisinzano got Catholic’s offense started in the second inning, smashing an RBI double to left-center to score Maggie Coleman, who had walked earlier. Prisinzano later scored on a passed ball. For the day, she went 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored.
“Each time, we know that we’re coming out here and facing them, we know it’s going to be really close. It’s going to be a tough game, a battle till the end,” Prisinzano said. “So, it’s just who can stay in it, stay focused. … All we’re trying to do is pass the bat and keep the game going.”
This season, Lexington Catholic has struggled fielding the ball, committing a whopping 32 errors in 14 games. Back-to-back errors in the fifth inning sparked a three-run rally for the Generals that let Lafayette narrow the gap to 7-4.
While LexCath has the luxury of one of the state’s best pitchers in freshman Abby Hammond (10-3, 0.99 ERA), the players know they have to clean up some things to keep winning games.
“Our big thing is that if you make a mistake, just wash it off and make it up with another play,” Prisinzano said. “Just not dwell on the past and take it one step at a time.”
Catholic jumped to a 5-0 lead Tuesday and responded with two more runs after a fourth-inning homer by Lafayette’s Trinity Bridges ended the shutout.
“We always preach, ‘We’ve got to get a lead.’ Because if you don’t have that lead, you can’t make those mistakes. You’re going to have a couple of mistakes, especially in a tough game like this,” Emmert said. “Sometimes, we’ll put it all together and everything’s perfect in the field and everything’s perfect at the plate and then everything’s clicking. We ended up giving them back a few but it was 7-1, so you can give up three.”
Two of Lafayette Coach Dan Grantz’s pitchers, Claire Cronan and Leah Holland, got a look at one of the toughest opponents the Generals will see all season. The other, Bridges, went the distance in a hard-fought 6-5 loss in 10 innings to the Knights on March 24.
“We’ve got three really good pitchers and our other two came in today and got a lot of work. We’ve seen a lot and now we know what we’re looking at and that will help me in the future,” Grantz said.
Bridges’ homer offered a glimpse of how much she’s growing as an offensive threat in addition to being their ace in the circle where the junior is 4-3-1 with a 1.54 ERA. She’s batting .385 with a team-leading three homers and 14 RBI.
“Now, you see how hot her bat is. She’s a really good hitter, and she’s worked hard on that.” Grantz said. “It’s actually kind of nice that we don’t have to pitch her every game. That’s going to help us win as we get deeper into the season.”
For Lafayette (9-4, 1-2) the loss serves as a learning experience, one Grantz hopes will lead to at least a repeat of last year’s efforts that resulted in an 11th Region title and trip to the state tournament quarterfinals.
“I told my girls that they have to come with energy and fire every day. … We weren’t ready, but the fight in our kids — we gave ourselves chances offensively. It was defensively that they kind of gave up some runs,” Grantz said. “I think the fact that we have to compete with teams like this is going to help us with good teams down the road when we have to face them. … Everything’s still a work in progress, but we will be ready when districts and regions come around.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 1:25 PM.
