It’s been almost two weeks since Kierra Camp has been able to take to the pitching circle for the Heritage softball team, but that didn’t stop her from telling coach Dickie Hightower to give her the ball.
Camp fought through an ankle injury and pitched both of the Patriots’ Class AAAA first round playoff games against Northwest Whitfield on Wednesday.
Even with the effort, the Patriots still couldn’t advance to the second round falling to the No. 1 seeded Bruins 10-2, 7-2.
“She pitched well but she pitched strictly on guts,” Hightower said. “Her ankle was bothering her, she really couldn’t come down on her foot.”
In both games Camp was given a lead, but the Patriots couldn’t hold on.
In the first game of the double header of the best-of-three series, Heritage scored two runs in the top of the third after getting a hit batter on base, reaching another runner on a hit batter, and moving both over on a sacrifice bunt. Heritage then scored both its runs on two hits. However, the Patriots couldn’t muster any more offense.
Northwest Whitfield tied the game in the bottom of the third inning, and then took the lead for good with five runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Bruins tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The second game went much the same, with Heritage - this time the home team - going up 2-0 in the top of the first, before Northwest Whitfield took over. The Bruins scored one run in the top of the second, and then poured on three more in the fourth. Camp pitched 10 strikeouts in the game, but Heritage couldn’t back her up, striking out six times of its own.
“We started good and scored some runs, but their pitching was going to keep us from scoring too many runs,” Hightower said. “They’ve got a pretty dominant pitcher, and it was going to be hard to get much of rally going.”
Northwest Whitfield’s Emily Boyd finished the second game, but started the first tallying eight strikeouts in the opener.
“Northwest Whitfield is a good ball club,” Hightower said. “They’ve got a good pitcher and they swing the bat pretty good. I can’t take anything away from them.”
Hightower said the Bruins also couldn’t take anything away from Heritage’s season, which although finished early was a successful one. “I think we had a great season I really do,” Hightower said. ”All the girls worked hard. Looking back over it, everyone wants to win every game they play, but we got as much out of our talent as we could.”
Heritage finished 23-12, right around where Hightower thought the Patriots would be before the season started.
“It said that it ended this way but sometimes you have to face reality,” Hightower said. "I thought at the beginning of the season if we could win 20 ball games it would be a great season.”
