Softball team opens season with win
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continue posting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
Kelly Norman fired a no-hitter and the Bryant Lady Hornets rattled the bats for 11 hits as they opened the 2005 season with a 10-0 romp over the Camden Fairview Lady Cardinals in five innings at Lady Hornets Field on Monday, March 7.
Norman, a junior, struck out three in the route-going performance.
Kara Vaughan led the offensive outburst, going 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles. Kaci Melhorn and Amie Hubbard, just out after the end of the basketball season, each had two hits. Hubbard’s included a triple.
In all, the Lady Hornets’ 11 hits included three doubles and three triples.
For a team that struggled at the plate at times last season, it was a welcome sight to head coach Lisa Spears.
“It was a very good offensive showing for an opener,” she said. “I couldn’t have dreamed it up better. We need to continue the same aggressive hitting into this weekend at the Mount St. Mary’s Tournament.”
The tournament, which will be played at Sherwood, will begin for Bryant on Friday, March 11, at 7 p.m., against Elkins.
“I know the girls were glad to be able to play a real game,” Spears said of Monday’s contest. “We’ve only scrimmaged each other every week up until this point.”
Spears returns most of her starters including her top pitchers, Norman and Vaughan.
“I am proud of our junior varsity squad as well,” she said. “They came back to win after Camden came out 4-0 in the first half inning.”
Allison Poteet was the winning pitcher in the JV game, a 7-5 victory.
The Bryant junior varsity was set to compete in a tournament at Bauxite on Tuesday, March 8 and Thursday, March 10, opening with a game against Magnet Cove.
