One thing is clear 11 games into the Trenton High School softball season – it’s not easy scoring runs on the Bulldogs.
On Monday night, the Lawson Cardinals became the latest team to fail to touch home plate against Trenton as the Bulldogs scored a 6-0 non-conference victory on Griffin Field.
The shutout was the third in a row for Trenton and seventh on the season. All of Trenton’s seven shutouts have come in the last eight games, a 4-3 loss to Hamilton being the only outlier in that stretch.
While Trenton is used to stymieing opposing offenses, the concept was unfamiliar for Lawson, which has been shut out just once prior this season, falling 9-0 to Lafayette in the first game of the season.
But to the dismay of the visitors, Ainsley Tolson was her usual self, going six of the seven innings and allowing no runs on just two hits while striking out seven Cardinal batters. McKayla Blackburn fired the seventh for Trenton and wasn’t much more forgiving, completing the shutout with one hit allowed and one strikeout in the single frame.
Tolson, who was coming off a perfect game against Polo last week, was perfect through three innings on this night, pushing her streak of not allowing a baserunner of any kind to 10 innings before Lawson got its first hit of the game to lead off the fourth inning.
Offensively, Trenton tallied what would be the winning run in the first inning. Maci Moore and Salem Croy hit back-to-back doubles with two outs, Croy’s scoring Moore for the run. Moore would drive in Mykah Hurley in the second inning to double the advantage and then scored on an RBI single by Taylor Richman to make it 3-0 Trenton just two innings in.
In the fourth inning, Lexi Whitaker crushed a solo home run to center field for Trenton’s fourth run and Whitaker and Sidney Lynch would each score on a Lawson miscue in the fifth to push the lead to what would be the final score at 6-0.
Moore and Whitaker were each two-for-three with two runs and one RBI apiece. Croy, Hurley, Richman, Lynch and Blackburn had one hit each to round out the Bulldogs’ nine-hit attack.
With the win, Trenton moved to 10-1 overall on the season.
The Bulldogs return to Grand River Conference play tonight, playing host to Milan on Griffin Field. The first pitch is slated for 5:30.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Trenton’s junior varsity dropped its match-up with Lawson, falling 10-6.
Trenton was able to get on the board first when Teya Cooksey walked and scored on Jaycie Griffin’s RBI double in the first inning. But Lawson would take over from there.
Lawson scored 10 runs in the third and fourth innings combined, putting Trenton at an extreme deficit. The Bulldogs would fight back with five more runs, but the Lawson lead was too great to overcome.
Gracyn Rongey was two-for-three with two runs and three steals to lead Trenton offensively.
Trenton’s JV fell to 1-5 on the season with the loss.