Sports Editor

It wasn’t a flawless night for the Charles Henderson Lady Trojans softball team, but it might as well have been.

CHHS shut out the Northview Lady Cougars 8-0 in their first official action of the spring and even managed to cut the game short in accordance to the eight-run mercy rule in the fifth inning.

The Lady Trojans got a big game out of their star pitcher Betsy White who took the mound all five innings notching eight strike outs and giving up only two hits and a walk. White also had a big day at the plate with a two-run bomb over the center field fence in the bottom of the first to get things started off right for the CHHS offense.

"There was a little rust there, but that always comes in your first game," head coach Steve Haug said. "They handled it though. Everyone came out and did what they had to do.

"This team (Northview) hasn’t seen anything like Betsy," he continued. "This is their first year in fast pitch so it will take a while, but they will do fine."

White’s homer made it 3-0 after Emily Watkins drew a walk and stole her way around the infield to score the first run of the year for the Lady Trojans. They added to the 3-0 score as Christine Haug also stole home later in the inning.

The Lady Trojans were held scoreless for the next two innings, but got two more in the fourth as Ashley Faust singled to left scoring Emily Christian and Elizabeth Roundtree.

After a ground out by Amanda Pruitt in the fifth scored Beth Allison from third, Lynell Boswell slid under a throw to the plate for the eighth and final run ending the game for the Lady Trojans.

The Charles Henderson girls retired the side in order three of the five innings and were never in any real danger of being scored upon.

Next up for CHHS will be Jeff Davis Thursday as the Lady Trojans host both the varsity and junior varsity squads with the JV game starting at 4 p.m. at the Troy Sportsplex.