Last season, Lee-Davis softball coach Jackie Davis felt junior pitcher Kelly Heinz struggled early as she made the adjustment from travel ball back to high school.

  The summer league teams on which Heinz played threw at a distance of 43 feet but the high school rubber sat at 40.

  This year with both throwing from the same distance, Heinz stepped into the circle with no fall off, which was clearly evident. In her first two appearances of the season, Heinz threw a five inning perfect game 17-0 blowout of Hermitage 17-0 on Wednesday and a 17-strikeout, one-hitter in a 6-1 victory over Central Region defending champion Prince George the following day.

  “I feel like a lot of people don’t like it at 43 feet, but me personally I really do,” Heinz said. “It’s a lot easier to come right into high school and not have to worry about moving up three feet closer and making the ball move sooner and a lot like that. It’s a lot less adjustment.”

  Against Prince George, Heinz struck out at least two Royal batters in all but one inning and had trio of three-K innings.

  “She threw hard tonight,” Davis said of Heinz. “She had a good night on the mound I thought she looked real good.”

  Overall, Davis was pleased with the performance of her team but upset at small, yet easily correctable miscues.

  “I was not happy defensively tonight,” she said. “We made some mistakes defensively which is out of character for this team to make. I definitely feel that we’re a better defensive team than we showed tonight. It was stupid little mistakes.”

  Though most teams would simply credit the miscues to the first week of the season, Davis holds higher expectations for her experienced squad.

  In the top of the fourth, Prince George’s Ginny Miller drilled a shot deep toward the right line and C-fed Rachel Houff came just short of making a running catch. “I counted Rachel’s ball as an error because it hit her glove,” Davis said. “It’s a catch that typically she’s going to make.”

  Miller went on to score the Royals’ only run of the game.

  In the top of the sixth, Miller reached again when defensive confusion allowed an infield pop-up to drop to the dirt. Later in the inning a throw to first glanced off Meredith Holmes glove allowing the runners to advance.

  “The little pop fly there, we had a little confusion and then Meredith’s one, she just tried to turn and tag before she caught the ball,” Davis said. “But those are errors that we can take care of.

  “Anytime I would not expect them to make mistakes like that,” Davis said.
  But there were fewer problems for the Confederates on offense facing first year Royal pitchers Miller and Jennifer Woodlief.

  “Offensively, we left some runners on base that I would have liked to see us get in but overall I thought we did a real nice job,” Davis said. “(We) were able to scratch some runs across, especially with their pitchers being not so predictable.”

  Haleigh Cottrell led things off in the bottom of the first by drilling a double to right, then came home following a bunt from Lacie Madison that drew a wild throw to first.

  In the bottom of the second it was Madison who added to the lead.

  Junior Taylor Deemer led off with a single between third and short and Katie Bowling’s sacrifice bunt put Deemer in scoring position.

  With two outs, Cottrell was walked when Madison returned to the plate and noticed Royal centerfielder Mandy Almarode was playing in a little too close. Madison then waited for the ball to come across where she wanted it.

  “She had thrown a lot of balls before that I was just waiting for the perfect strike down the middle,” Madison said.

  When that perfect pitch came, Madison blasted a shot over the head of Almarode in center for a triple that drove in Deemer and Cottrell for a 3-0 Lee-Davis lead.

  The Confederates answered the Royals’ run in the bottom of the fifth when Casey Price was walked and Taylor Melton doubled to left center to drive her in.

  The C-feds then added two more in to bottom of the sixth to create the final score.

  Though there are high expectations for Lee-Davis, the players have adopted a one-game-at-a-time attitude.

  “We have a big target on our back, it’s a big bull’s eye saying ‘Let’s go get Lee-Davis,’ but no, we’re just thinking about it one game at a time and taking it slow,” Heinz said. “Everything that is to come is in the future and right now is the present.”

  “I think we’re used to it,” Madison added. “We do a pretty job of getting ready to go for these type of games.”

  Lee-Davis moved to 2-0 on the season while Prince George fell to 0-2 after Atlee handed them an 11-6 defeat earlier in the week.
 
Lee-Davis 6, Prince George 0
P. George 000 100 0 — 1 1 3
L-D 120 012 x — 6 8 4
Miller, Woodlief (6) and Landruth; Heinz and Cottrell
Records: Prince George 0-2; Lee-Davis 2-0