FORT BENNING, Ga., (May 29, 2013) -- One team had more firepower in a Commander's Cup Preseason Softball Tournament championship match that turned into a slugfest Thursday. 5th Squadron, 15th Cavalry Regiment, flexed its muscles throughout its lineup in a 17-12 win over 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, at Gowdy Field to take the preseason crown.
The bats caught fire for 5-15 in the bottom of the fourth inning, when the squadron got six runners across the plate while managing to hold 1-10 FA to just one run in the ensuing inning, leaving it to play catch-up the rest of the game.
5-15 team captain Curtis Graffam said the bottom of his team's lineup made the difference offensively in the championship game and throughout the tournament.
"If you get five or six runs in an inning, it will boost you up," Graffam said. "The biggest moment for us was … where we scored (six) runs. The bottom of the order carried us."
Indeed, four of the six runs scored in the bottom of the fourth were driven in by Nos. 6-10 in the line up.
Malcolm Gass, batting sixth, led the charge for 5-15, going a perfect 4-for-4 with three RBI, including a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning.
"Our power guys have been hitting the ball hard and our guys at the bottom of the order have been turning it back up to us at the top of the order," Graffam said. "They're waiting for pitches and finding the holes on the field."
Joseph Holmes, head coach of 1-10 FA, said his team's defense wasn't up to par against the hard hitting 5-15. Two errors in the bottom of the second inning and another in the bottom of the fourth resulted in five runs for 5-15, the difference in the score. He also said 1-10 FA didn't respond with the same intensity in the top of the fifth inning.
"Our defense usually plays a little better," Holmes said. "We didn't get the routine outs, which ultimately led to the big innings.
"We had those errors and they got that big inning, we came back up and we didn't score (the runs we needed to). If they hit the ball hard, then we have to do the same thing."
Social Sharing