It’s been a week full of softball action for Oak Hill Academy and Starkville Academy as the two teams are back on the diamond and are making their way through the early slate of the season’s schedule. 

Powered by freshman pitcher Kaelyn Pennington’s 23 combined strikeouts in back-to-back games, the Raiders captured their first win of the year on Monday at Kirk Academy and added another at Carroll Academy on Tuesday, while the Volunteers dropped a close game at Calhoun in extra innings on the same day.

Against Kirk, Pennington struck out seven batters and only allowed four runs in an 11-4 rout to get the Raiders into the victory column. Molly Aycock led the team on offense with a double, two singles and had two of the team’s seven RBI – which include another two generated by Pennington, who also singled at the plate. 

She’s pretty solid,” Oak Hill head coach Lewis Earnest said. “She’s just a ninth grader, but as an eighth grader last year she was the district MVP, and she hits it really well. But, she’s good at locating and hitting her spots and changing speeds. She’s going to get hit a little bit, because she’s not overpowering, but she locates the ball pretty good.” 

The Raiders came alive at the plate Monday, picking up 12 hits as they tacked on two runs in the second inning, three runs in the third and added four more in the fifth before a single by Mollie Caroline Brand brought Sally Rhea Chaney home for the game’s final run in the seventh. Kirk produced two runs in the second inning, one run in the third and one more in the fifth. 

Lucy Ramsay, Katelyn Lewis, and Brand each notched two hits and combined to score four of the Raiders’ runs. Parker Higginbotham scored two runs with a hit and an RBI, Chaney made it across home plate twice and added a hit and Mary Crosly Coker chipped in a run. 

On Tuesday, Pennington kept her hot streak blazing as she fanned 16 Carroll Academy batters in an 11-0 shutout. The freshman issued zero walks and only gave up three hits.

Pennington also drilled two doubles and had an RBI. The Raiders pounced on the Rebels with one run in the first inning, two in the second, five in the fifth and added three more in the sixth. Oak Hill feasted at the plate with 10 hits and 10 RBI, with three of those hits belonging to Aycock. She had a double, two singles and two RBI, and both Higginbotham and Brand also had two hits. Brand dished out a double and a single for two RBI and scored two runs. Coker hit a triple for an RBI and scored a run.  

Through two games, Oak Hill produced 22 hits and 17 RBIs. Earnest said it’s a start for his team, and he wants to see some more improvement at the plate.

“The pitching wasn’t quite as strong as Starkville (Academy), but I mean it’s been better,” he said. “We still are not really swinging it very good. We hit a few of them hard, but we’ve also had a few lucky hits just finding the hole. We are not just tearing the ball up though like we should be. But it’s improvement – baby steps. We’ll hopefully get better as we go.”

Another opportunity to improve arrives on Thursday when the Raiders host Hebron Christian at 6:30 p.m. 

Calhoun Academy 4, Starkville Academy 3

For the Vols, Calhoun’s Collyns Stegall hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to bring home the game-winning run to hand SA a 4-3 defeat in its second game of the season.

Calhoun, which was outhit 7-5, held a 2-0 lead after the first inning after the Cougars’ Sarah Kate Collins delivered a two-run homer to open the game. The Vols tied up the game in the fifth inning when a ground ball hit by Azleigh Slivka reached the outfield on an error by Calhoun, allowing Lauren Adkerson and Ella Kate Heflin to score. Slivka gave Starkville a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning when she hit a triple into right field to bring home Heflin. With the help of an SA fielding error, the Cougars rallied in the seventh when a fly ball brought home the tying run to force extra innings.

Pitcher Molly Ingram gave up all five hits and three earned runs and was dealt the loss in the circle despite striking out 10 Cougars. The sophomore also led the team with a double and two singles. Piper Graves and Emmi Miller each had one hit.

The Vols will look to bounce back Monday when they play at Hebron at 6 p.m.