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A Derby baserunner slides into second ahead of the throw to Valley Center shortstop Hannah Headley March 31.

Hornet softball beats Hays, falls to Derby
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: April 02, 2015

A newcomer had a good night for the young Valley Center High School softball squad.

But the Hornets couldn't scratch a couple of additional runs in the nightcap to win their first two games of the season.

In the opener March 31, Valley Center hit through the lineup and ended the game early on a 13-1 victory over the visiting Hays Indians.

In the final game of the night, Derby got the best of the Hornets in the sixth inning to hand Valley Center a 5-2 loss.

The Hornets are 1-1, both non-league contests.

"We played really well in both games," said Valley Center coach Corey Jones.

In the opener, freshman Kaylee Burnett struck out six and gave up just one hit to Hays for the win.

"It felt great," Burnett said. "I'm glad to be a Hornet now. It feels good. … I was just trying to move the ball around and strike them out."

She did it well.

Hays got a hit in the first inning, but Burnett shook it off to retire the next 10 batters and get the Hornets into the fourth inning without a blemish.

Meanwhile, Valley Center's bats were doing some damage of their own. In the first inning, a single by freshman Taylor Rowley and a double by junior Elena Turner scored two runs, which stood until the third when Valley took advantage of four Hays error to tally four more runs and a 6-0 lead.

In the fourth, the Hornets exploded for seven runs with hits by Burnett, sophomore Kaitlan Stanhope and senior Hannah Headley and a triple to deep center field by Rowley.

"Everybody hit, really from the top to the bottom of the lineup," Jones said. "We moved runners. I was under the impression we'd have to play small ball. … But we hit the ball in the gap a lot and we had some extra base hits. We got off to a really good start."

In the top of the fifth, Jones inserted Ashlyn Jacobs to pitch for Burnett. Jacobs gave up a couple of hits and Hays' only run, but Burnett, playing first, completed a tag-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play to end the game on a run-rule.

"That was a good game to open up with," Jones said. "… We didn't have a lot of mental mistakes."

In the second game, Derby got the go-ahead run in the second inning, but Valley Center answered in the bottom of the frame for a 1-1 tie.

Derby took a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning, where it unloaded for three runs and a 5-1 advantage.

Jones said he made a mistake by letting Burnett pitch into the sixth.

Jacobs was warmed up to pitch, but he gave Burnett one more inning.

"I should've gone with Ashlyn," Jones said. "… You can always second-guess yourself. I just waited too long. I learned from it myself."

Down by three in the bottom of the sixth, Valley Center loaded the bases with one out but couldn't deliver the runs.

The Hornets left too many runners on base, Jones said.

"You can't do that against good teams," he said. "… We just couldn't quite get the two-out hit that we needed to get."

Jacobs pitched in the seventh and shut down Derby to give Valley Center a final chance, to no avail.

The Hornets out-hit the Panthers, 9-6, and played mistake-free defense.

In the middle game of the tripleheader, Derby beat Hays 18-0.






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