Donettes roll past Naylor

DONIPHAN — In the big inning, the Doniphan Donettes softball team stepped on the gas and refused to let up.

The Donettes put another one in the win column after getting on the board with 12 runs in the third inning as they took a 15-0 win over Naylor.

The scoring frenzy started with Doniphan sophomore Dalila Watson smashing a double that brought in the first two runs.

Watson finished the game with four runs on two hits — all in the third inning. Along with Watson’s two hits, Carsyn Hagood added two hits to her list as well.

“We got off to a slow start, but we managed to get the bats going in the third inning,” Doniphan coach Brad Hagood said. “I always tell the girls: ‘Control what you can control.’ Because you can’t always control when you make an error or something like that. But you can control your decisions and the way that you play.”

The huge third inning didn’t just consist of hot bats. During the 12-run inning, multiple Donettes got on base after drawing walks from the Naylor pitching. Coach Hagood said he was proud of the way his athletes showed patients while they were at the plate.

This is probably the best that we’ve hit as a team,” coach Hagood said. “Right now, as a team, we’re batting at .404. You can win some games when you’re batting like that and also drawing walks to get on base.”

Naylor’s Peyton Hopkins pitched from the start into the third inning before she took over duties at third base. She was relieved by Alexis Holcomb.

In addition to Watson picking up four RBIs, Kenna Kirby led the Donettes with three walks as the whole team collected 10 walks on the game

Kylie Hawkins earned the win for Doniphan by allowing no hits and no runs over the course of four innings.

In total, the Donettes took stole four bases in the four innings and managed to turn one double play in the game.

Going into the third inning there were no runs scored, but by the end of the third inning, the Donettes had scored 12 runs.

“I was impressed with the way the girls played all the way around,” coach Hagood said. “We’ve got some tough games ahead of us, and we won’t take anyone for granted. We try to treat every game like it’s the most important one.”

On Thursday, the Donettes will travel to Greenville where they will make up games against Neelyville and Greenville after having previously been rained out.

“Thursday will be a big test,” coach Hagood noted. “We’ll have Neelyville at 5 p.m. and Greenville at 7 p.m. We have plenty of things to be focused on in the very near future.”