Benton Academy’s Lady Raiders opened the 2022 softball season with a tough 4-1 loss to Canton Academy on Monday night.
The two teams battled tooth and nail early before the Lady Panthers were able to rally in the top of the fourth inning after a pair of hit batters and a passed ball allowed them to load the bases and score three runs.
Canton would tack on an additional run two innings later while Benton scored a run but was held scoreless down the stretch.
Maci Lowery, Ella McCain, and Emma Middleton were the only Lady Raiders to register hits, all with singles.
The loss certainly wasn’t the way first-year head coach Chad Smith wanted to start his tenure at Benton, but he remains positive moving forward.
“The girls battled hard and had a couple of mistakes that hurt us bad, but we didn’t perform well at the plate today,” said Smith. “You can’t have 13-14 strikeouts and win softball games and that’s what we did.”
“We just didn’t come out and swing it, but tomorrow is another day and we’ll try to get that cleaned up at practice and be ready for Tri-County on Thursday.”
“I thought we pitched it pretty good today but again we just weren’t mentally tough enough at the plate today. We kind of got down on ourselves and didn’t fight back, but I’ll take the blame for not having them ready for that. That’s something else that we’re going to have to correct.”
