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Columbia's Harleigh Price (21) is greeted at home plate after hitting a go-ahead 3-run home run against Lafayette on Thursday night. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
There were high expectations for Columbia’s freshmen trio entering the season.
That trio may have raised them even more after their performances against Lafayette on Thursday.
Harleigh Price hit a go-ahead 3-run home run in the fifth inning, Josie Raulerson added a solo shot in the sixth and Kinley King pitched a complete game to lift the Tigers to a come-from-behind 6-2 win over the Hornets at home. Price also had an RBI single in the sixth as part of a 3-for-3 night where she reached base four times.
It added up to a third straight win for Columbia (3-4) following four losses to start the season, while Lafayette (4-6) dropped its fourth game in its last five.
“They’re confident to start with, but now they’re kind of finding their way a little bit and figuring out what they need to do,” Columbia coach Cindy Dansby. “Tonight, the freshmen, you have to hand it to them. Kinley on the mound, and Harleigh and Josie hit bombs. In between all that there were some plays, little things done and little hits spread out, but those were three big things.”
King allowed an RBI single to Ella Hancock in the third inning before running into trouble in the fourth. Miley McCray led off with a single and was bunted to second base by Brooke Lamb, which led to King walking Khloe Crotts. Kambry Moseley then hit a fly ball that was misplayed by CHS right fielder Addyson Sherman, which allowed McCray to score to put LHS up 2-0.
But King settled down, got Bella Vann to foul bunt a third strike and then got Ella McAdams to fly out to center to limit the damage. The freshmen only allowed two baserunners the rest of the night, one of which was Emma Revels in the sixth inning where she tried to stretch a single into a double only for Luisa Taylor to throw her out from center field where shortstop Lillyenne Mayhew was able to apply the tag just in time.
King’s final line included one earned run allowed on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts. Working out of the jam in the third inning was nothing new for King, who’s pitched a lot growing up.
“I’ve been pitching for a long time so I’m used to that,” King said. “I’m not really a good strikeout pitcher so I know they’re going to get hits off of me and we’re going to have some bad things, but I know we can come back together as a team and put it all back together.”
It took King’s offense a while to do that as the Tigers only managed two hits through the first four innings before finally getting to LHS starting pitcher Clara Knight in the fifth. Taylor led off with an infield single and Sakiya Merriex drew a one-out walk, but Sherman then grounded into a fielder’s choice where the Hornets were able to throw Taylor out at third base.
Knight then nearly got out of the inning, but Price fouled off a few pitches with two strikes before finally getting ahold of a pitch that landed over the left field wall to put CHS up 3-2.
“I take rise balls near my hands pretty well and I was expecting her to throw up, so I was thinking just keep my hands high and drive it because I wasn’t able to help my team defense wise tonight,” said Price, who was the designated player in the lineup. “But I was able to help them offense wise. I figured if I could just keep the dugout up and I was able to help any way I could then it would help out the team.
“I think (the home run) brought back the energy and showed the game isn’t over until the last pitch I thrown. We don’t need to get down. If we get down by one or two runs, one pitch can change the whole game.”
The Hornets stuck with Knight in the sixth, but she surrendered a leadoff home run to Raulerson, who lofted it to dead center field. That should have been the only damage in the inning, but McAdams airmailed a throw from third base to first that allowed Anna Dansby to reach safely with two outs, setting up an infield single from Merriex and an RBI single by Sherman.
Lafayette then pulled Knight in favor of Crotts, but she immediately gave up an RBI single to Price that chased home Merriex before she was able to get out the inning. Knight was charged with all six runs — four earned — on eight hits and two with zero strikeouts in the loss.
Columbia’s long 4-game week finally wraps up Friday when defending Class 2A state champion University Christian visits for a 6:30 p.m. matchup.
“How they came out at the start of the game and how they warmed up, it was a direct reflection of that,” Cindy Dansby said. “I know it’s a long week. Three games and now we have four games and we had three games last week, so it’s a lot. They’re teenagers. They’ve got AP classes, honors classes, college classes, so we’re putting a lot on them and asking a lot of them. But at the same time, if this was a birthday party they’d all be up slinging it and ready to go, so we’ve just got to find that and we have to do it quicker because the other team sometimes aren’t going to give you that luxury. They’re gonna put runs on the board and you might not have an opportunity to come back.”