Lady Cats finish Enterprise Invitational

The Enterprise softball team finished the Enterprise Invitational April 8 after it played a pair of games.

EHS beat Charles Henderson 2-1 in its first game of elimination play.

The Lady Cats scored the first run when Shelby Kyser roped a single, stole a base and came home when Mariah Farris singled to center in the first inning.

"Execution and doing the little things to manufacture a run is sometimes what you’ve got to do when you’re struggling to hit," EHS softball coach Mollie Mitchell said. "I was proud of them that we came out, got a runner on base, moved her around and were able to work for a run. It’s always a good thing to start the game scoring."

Hope Mynard crushed a solo shot to left to lead off the second and give Enterprise a 2-0 lead.

"It’s good for Hope right now," Mitchell said. "She’d been struggling a little bit, and it’s good for her to kind of build her confidence back up."

Charles Henderson doubled to right in the fifth and pushed a run across on a single to center, but could draw no closer.

Alex Watson threw a complete game in the circle and struck out three in the win.

"(It’s) always a good thing to get up early and then be able to hold on to (the lead)," Mitchell said. "I’m proud of Alex for working hard and our defense for making the plays we needed to make."

Enterprise was eliminated after it couldn't get much going in a 4-0 loss against Headland.

"It’s the exact opposite of what we did in the first game," Mitchell said. "When a team gets out on you early, you’ve got to come back and fight. We didn’t make adjustments. We put the ball in play so that’s good, but we’ve got to make adjustments earlier and be able to string some hits together."

The Lady Rams scored three times in the first inning, and the first run crossed after a double followed by consecutive singles.

A bunt hit scored another run, and the third came home on a groundout.

Enterprise stranded runners at the corners in the second, and Headland took a 4-0 advantage when it scored on an error in the bottom half.

The Lady Cats loaded the bases in the third, but couldn't push a run across. They also put a runner on third, but came up empty in the fourth.

The game was called in the fifth after the time limit expired.

Hannah Mynard started the game in the circle and pitched a third of an inning before Watson entered in relief to finish the game.

Watson struck out four in the game.

"There’s going to be days where pitchers struggle," Mitchell said. "That’s just the way it is. That’s the beauty of having two pitchers. If they continue to work together, Alex pick up Hannah’s slack and Hannah pick up Alex’s slack, we’re going to be all right."

Despite the exit after two games of elimination play, Mitchell said the tournament will help the team.

"I think it challenges you to keep your mindset right, to find that drive inside of you, whatever it is that keeps driving you and keeps pushing you no matter what the circumstance is," she said. "Sometimes it’s good to be put in tough situations where you’ve got to push through or not. If we can learn to push all of the time, it’s going to help us down the road."