COLUMBUS — When seventh grade right-hander KK Pennington took the mound for Oak Hill Academy in Friday’s season opener, some nerves undoubtedly set in.
It was her first time pitching on varsity for a program that has had high expectations in recent seasons.
“I was very nervous, but I calmed down once I started because I knew my fielders and catcher were behind me,” Pennington said.
While she might have had some nerves within the first few batters, Pennington quickly settled in and began mowing down Heritage Academy’s offense.
Opening Day for both programs turned into a blowout for the Raiders thanks to stellar pitching and an onslaught of hitting as Oak Hill dominated, a 20-0 win in three innings.
“We just wanted to throw strikes, wanted to put the ball in play and wanted to make plays,” Oak Hill head coach Lewis Earnest said. “It doesn’t matter who you play, how good they are, how bad they are, you just have to play the game and let the chips fall where they lay.”
Oak Hill (1-0) lost a number of key seniors last season, many of whom took up the entire infield. That meant plenty of retooling in the offseason to make sure they were ready for whatever Midsouth Association of Independent Schools Class 4A softball threw at it.
Friday was a strong showing of that, scoring six runs in the first, 10 in the second and four in the third.
“The pitching was slower than what we were used to in our district last season, so we just had to adjust,” senior Harley Vaughn said. “I feel like our confidence is up already following that win. Hopefully, we’ll continue to keep building.”
On the other side of the ball, the Patriots (0-1) struggled keeping the Raiders off the bases and off the scoreboard.
A number of careless errors led to unearned runs, none more so than in the third inning, with what seemed like three outs falling by the wayside with errant throws and missed catches.
“This game showed them how fast the game really is,” Heritage head coach Kaitlyn Glenn said. “I think we can build from that, but there’s a lot of stuff that we need to work on.”
Heritage has a team with a lot of inexperience, but while the program got off on the wrong foot to start the 2023 season, there is promise ahead.
“A few of our new girls are showing up, showing out,” Glenn said. “They’re getting better. We’re not a young team, but an inexperienced team. Over half of these girls haven’t played softball before. This first game was to show how far they’ve come in practice so far.”
For Oak Hill, the schedule immediately gets tougher, facing local rival Starkville Academy on Tuesday for the first of multiple games next week.
The Raiders are facing an early gauntlet of games in a short span of time, a gauge of where this team can go moving forward.
“It’s a good thing to have competition within the team, ” Earnest said. “It’s going to make everyone better. … They were glad to get that first one. We got a full week of games coming up, so we’ll find out what kind of team they are soon.”
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