KING CITY, Mo. — Worth County softball added to their winning record, by winning the King City Tournament on Saturday. They beat Gilman City 13-5 and King City 5-3.
“You know, we came out this season wanting and expecting that out of us,” Tiger senior captain Rylee Ruckman said. “I’m glad that we are meeting our expectations.”
The first two innings started off slow for both Worth County and Gilman City. Junior Kristen Tracy was able to strike out three Lady Hawks out of the lineup, but Gilman City was able to score one run in the first inning due to an error.
During the third and fourth inning, Worth County got into a groove and scored eight runs unanswered. Riley Ridge was the first Tiger on the board, scoring on a passed ball, then Kambree Briner scored from a single from Audrey Runde.
Rylee Ruckman doubled scoring two, Briner, Runde, Megan Tracy and Addi Gray all brought in one, moving the score up to 8-1.
In the fifth inning, Keira Hardy scored from a walk. Kristen Tracy brought in four runs from a Gilman City error, getting an even bigger lead of 13-1. Gilman City responded by gaining three more runs trying to close the gap.
Neither team scored in the sixth inning, giving the win to the Tigers 13-5.
“Yeah, the girls are just putting the ball in play,” Tiger coach Cody Green said. “They’re playing some good ball right now.”
For the second game, Worth County faced a rematch against King City from a tournament the weekend before.
The first inning for the Tigers started similar to earlier. Briner doubled, and advanced on an error, but was later caught scoring home. Megan Tracy was able to score in Kristen Tracy to put the Tigers on the board. The Wildcats also scored with Brylin Armfield bringing in Kinzie Pettijohn.
Briner tripled to score two in the second inning, but was caught going home again. For King City, it was three up, three down, bringing the score 3-1. Neither team was able to score in the third inning.
“Kambree did a great job putting the ball in play there as well,” Green said.
It was King City in the fourth inning who scored next, evening the score 3-3.
In the fifth inning, Hardy brought in both Runde and Ruckman. King City couldn’t get started again, and Worth County pulled out the win 5-3.
For the Tigers, Briner led with four hits and four RBI, then Ridge with four hits, and Ruckman with one hit and two RBI from both games. The team totaled 18 hits. Kristen Tracy had seven strikeouts and Megan Tracy had three.
“Its just a mental game, and not giving up on each other,” Ruckman said. “Keeping each other up and our heads up. That was my biggest takeaway from today.”
Worth County is on the road this week headed to Albany on Tuesday and Pattonsburg on Thursday.