The date is Tuesday, September 12th, with the time at 5:30, when two powers in north-central Missouri softball collide, as the Trenton Lady Bulldogs trek to Unionville to take on the Putnam County Lady Midgets. Â If the next 11 days keep the same pattern as the previous 11, a Grand River Conference divisional championship may very well be up for grabs.
The Bulldogs and Midgets remained on their collision course on Thursday night with GRC home-field victories, with THS overwhelming a young South Harrison squad, 15-0 in three innings, while Putnam County welcomed the Polo Lady Panthers to Unionville, with the Midgets taking a 5-1 victory.
Trenton’s softball machine was running “full steam ahead” at Griffin Field, with junior Ainsley Tolson firing a 3-inning perfect game, with six strikeouts, while the THS offense scored twice in the 1st inning, added 7 in the 2nd, with 6 more in the 3rd. In the first frame, Mykah Hurley scored on Tolson’s RBI ground out and courtesy runner Kennedy Norton scored on a wild pitch. Â
Ashten Whitaker led off the 2nd inning with a walk and scored on Lexi Whitaker’s bunt single after South Harrison threw the ball away down the right field line. Lexi Whitaker scored on a wild pitch and Hurley collected her second walk of the night and scored on Tolson’s RBI double. Taylor Richman followed with a double of her own to score Tolson and an RBI ground out by Sidney Lynch scored Richman. Maci Moore and Jayden Roeder scored the final two runs of the inning on Ashten Whitaker’s 2 RBI single.Â
Trenton finished the game in the bottom of the third with 6 more runs highlighted by an RBI double by Salem Croy, another RBI groundout by Tolson, RBIs from Roeder and Ashten Whitaker. Lexi Whitaker ended the game with an RBI single to score Roeder. Richman and Lexi Whitaker were both 2-3, Tolson was 1-3 with 3 RBI, Croy and Ashten Whitaker had the other 2 hits on the night. Mykah Hurley scored 3 runs on 3 BB with 2 SB.  The Lady Bulldogs, now 8-1 on the season, will travel to Polo (Tuesday) and Milan (Thursday) next week, looking to avoid stubbing their toe in GRC Eastern Division play.
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Trenton Head Coach John Cowling was pleased with his team’s focus against South Harrison, saying, “We did exactly what we needed to in this game tonight. Even though it was a short outing, Ainsley was sharp in her 3 innings. The only negative in the game was our hitters being frustrated with the lack of pitches they could hit.”
Putnam County’s Sammi Bradshaw outdueled Polo’s Shelby Copeland in the 5-1 Midget victory, with seven innings of one-run, seven hit, eight strikeout softball. Â Bradshaw helped her own cause with two RBI’s for the PC offense. Â Copeland hit a solo homer with Kallie Heil having two hits in four at-bats for Polo.
Gallatin picked up a conference win on Thursday night, beating Princeton 4-1, while Milan’s six game winning streak came to a crashing halt, as Maysville scored nine runs in the first two innings and beat the Lady Wildcats 10-0.
The THS JV kept their undefeated season going Thursday night, moving to 5-0 with a shortened three-inning win over the South Harrison Bulldogs, 8-1.Â
Trenton was led by McKayla Blackburn both in the circle and at the plate. Blackburn went three innings, giving up one run on two hits while striking out five. At the plate, Blackburn was one-for-two with a three-run inside-the-park homerun. Trenton also received a 2-RBI triple from Lexi Whitaker.Â
Kennedy Norton, Sara Spencer, Mackenzie McAtee, Jillian Nichols, and Sidney Lynch all logged hits for THS as well.
The season opener for the Trenton Middle School softball teams was Thursday night, with the Bulldogs hosting South Harrison at Johnson Field. South Harrison beat Trenton in the “A’ game 14-4. Â For TMS, Gracyn Rongey was 1 for 3 and scored a run, with Megan Spencer and Delaney Franklin each getting two hits. Â Andra Selby and Kammi Phillips each had a double in three at-bats. Â In the “B” game, Trenton and South Harrison finished in a 3-3 tie.
On the western side of the Grand River Conference on Thursday night, Braymer took a nine-inning affair with Worth County, winning 12-5; Albany doubled up King City 6-3; and North Andrew was an 8-2 winner against Pattonsburg.
Gilman City lost to Stewartsville 9-5 and Lawson spoiled Hamilton’s KCI Conference opener, with the Lady Cards winning 3-2.  Lathrop rolled over North Platte, 10-0, while  Marceline took a 6-0 shutout at LaPlata with Centralia shutting out Louisiana 7-0.
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