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Lecanto gets nothing in loss to Hernando

By CAREY FREEMAN and LINDA ROTHSTEIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 9, 2001

LECANTO -- It took five minutes for Lecanto to realize that Thursday would not be its night.

From her first-inning home run to the last pitch of the game, the evidence was clear: This was Chrissy Hartley's night. The senior left little doubt in leading Hernando to a 4-0 victory behind a no-hitter and a 3-for-4 performance at the plate.

"(Hartley) was sick (Wednesday), and I didn't know if she would even throw tonight," Leopards coach Ernie Chatman said. "But she threw pretty well. She kept her head in there and put it in play three different times." Hartley (5-0) helped herself on her first at-bat, taking a low offering from Lecanto's Emily Bayer and lifting it over the head of leftfielder Dana Teller and toward the fence 300 feet away. Hartley came all the away around for the go-ahead run.

The Leopards (9-1) scored three more runs, but it didn't matter thanks to Hartley. She struck out 11 and made five putouts. The only blemish was a hit batter with two outs in the third.

"Oh yeah, (the home run) brought my sprits up and brought the dugout up, too," Hartley said. "(The pitch) was inside, and it was down. I just got a hold of it, and I was lucky to hit it."

Bayer (7-4) finished with six strikeouts and gave up six hits and three earned runs.

The Leopards scored twice in the fourth, sparked by a one-out double from Hartley. Kimi Olmstead followed with a single. And a two-out walk to Carolyn Gant loaded the bases for Christine Baldwin, whose two-run single put an end to any thoughts of a Lecanto comeback.

Hernando added a run in the seventh when Jamie Kunkle drew a one-out walk and Hartley reached on an error. Olmstead flied out to rightfield for the second out, but an errant throw back to first allowed Olmstead to score. -- CAREY FREEMAN

Clearwater edges Land O'Lakes

LAND O'LAKES -- Land O'Lakes closed the gap but not enough Thursday, losing for the second time to Clearwater 3-2.

The Tornadoes won their last meeting, in February, 6-3.

"It was a very competitive game," Land O'Lakes coach Jerry English said.

"This is an excellent team that we played. I told everybody, "This is one of the teams that we have to play competitive with to see how we do.' And I think we did it today."

Land O'Lakes ace Ashley Patton helped keep Clearwater in check, striking out nine and walking just one. "I think defensively, we played really well," Clearwater coach Brian Mont said. "When we needed to, we got the base hits and, fortunately, scored enough runs to keep them off."

Clearwater (8-0) did its damage early, scoring two runs in the first. Leadoff hitter Sarah Foster reached on an error and scored on pitcher Mariah Green's triple to right-centerfield. Catcher Katie Cavallaro followed with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Tornadoes a 2-0 lead.

The Gators (7-4) tied it in the bottom of the second. Catcher Jen Savage led off with a walk and advanced to third on third baseman Amber DeYoung's bunt. Rightfielder April Slate followed with a walk to load the bases before first baseman Lauren Mays singled to rightfield to score Savage and DeYoung.

Clearwater pulled ahead in the fourth. Third baseman Star Jones reached on an error, advanced to second on a sacrifice and to third on a passed ball. She scored on a groundout. In the seventh, Land O'Lakes got the tying run to second, but Green struck out the final batter to end it. -- LINDA ROTHSTEIN

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