EHS dominates Hampton in ‘Folds of Honor’ tilt
Published 8:21 pm Tuesday, April 20, 2021
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The honor of the evenings first pitch was given to John Allen. Allen is a 26 year veteran of the military including a deployment during Desert Storm. He fired the first pitch with granddaughter Maddie O’Quinn by his side and to Emma O’Quinn behind the plate.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders With a trumpeter playing Taps from just beyond the centerfield wall, member of the Elizabethton Cyclones and Hampton Bulldogs paid honors and showed respect to living veterans and fallen heros who have served in the United States Military during their annual Folds for Honor game.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Lady Cyclone starting pitcher Maddie O’Quinn (3) fires a warmup pitch just prior to the start of Monday night’s game against Hampton.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Bulldogs Madison Setlock (2) rips a double down the left field line in the top of the first inning.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Maely Ingram (20) leads off the bottom of the first with a single to right centerfield.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Elizabethton’s Maely Ingram (20) is off and running on the first pitch to teammate Maddie O’Quinn (3), easily beating the throw to second.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Bulldogs left fielder Abbie Willis (20) tracks down a foul ball,, on the run, that looked to be over her head for the first in the bottom of the first inning.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Bulldogs center fielder Makayla Maslin (1 ) draws a bead on a soft liner to left center for the second out of the bottom of the first inning.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Cyclones Ember Jensen delivers a double in the first inning of action against Hampton.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders The Lady Bulldogs Abbie Willis (20) slices a pitch right down the first baseline, that hits the bag, flies over it, and first baseman Kenidy Harris’s head, landing fair for a single in the top of the second inning.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Hampton shortstop Sara Orr (4) makes a great catch on a very soft liner that was slicing away from her for the first out in the top of the second.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Elizabethton’s Maely Ingram (20 )lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt half way to the circle, and is thrown out at first by the Lady Bulldogs Cheyenne Fair (18) in the bottom of the second inning.
StarPhoto/Larry N. Souders Lady Bulldog starting pitcher Cheyenne Fair (18) fires a strike in the bottom of the second inning.
BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Folds of Honor is a scholarship program for families of fallen soldiers begun by Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney in 2007 and on Monday they hosted a softball exhibition with Hampton pitted against Elizabethton High School.
The Lady Cyclones unleashed a 17-hit attack and when the dust had settled EHS had earned an 18-0 win over the Lady Bulldogs. Emma Pendergrass came off the bench and went two-for-two with a triple and double and drove in five runs.
“We got everybody in the game,” Lady Cyclones head coach Kenneth Hardin said. “Coach (Chelsey) Weddle is working hard at rebuilding their program and trying to do things to improve things for the team. I coached her in golf and she is a great person. I think they hit the ball pretty well.”
The Cyclones had just one scoreless inning – the third – but scored multiple runs in every other frame. Kallista DePrimo had a first-inning triple that plated a run and Maddie O’Quinn and Ember Jensen each had run-scoring doubles in the stanza.
In the second inning, O’Quinn drilled a second RBI two-bagger and Madison Pritchard also had a run-scoring double as EHS led 6-0. In the fourth frame, the Cyclones plated five more runs against Bulldogs starter Rachel Fair with Pendergrass delivering a bases-loaded triple as the big blow as EHS took an 11-0 advantage.
Normally that would have ended the contest with Hampton going down in the top of the fifth but the teams agreed to finish out the game.
That allowed EHS to add seven more runs with Pendergrass driving in two more and Hannah Morgan came on as a pinch hitter and she drove in two runs with a single to leftfield.
Pritchard came on in the seventh and took care of the Lady ‘Dogs hitters with three strikeouts. For Hampton, Macy Henry had two hits and Madison Setlock had a first-inning double to the base of the leftfield fence.
“We have a game coming up Thursday against Happy Valley so I wanted to get Pritchard an inning of work,” Hardin said.
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Folds of Honor exhibition
EHS 18-0
Hampton 000 000 0 – 0 3
EHS 330 534 x – 18 17
