Lee County softball holds on against Pinecrest

The Lee County and Pinecrest softball teams both opened the season learning to adjust to heavy graduation losses, but don’t read too much into the Yellow Jackets sweeping the Patriots twice in eight days.

Lee County won 7-3 last week on the road and 4-3 on Thursday night at home in their second nonconference game, but both teams feel good about how they are developing. They’re led by strong senior pitchers that can hit along with teammates that are contributing defense and timely hitting.

The Yellow Jackets’ Whitney Sanford struck out nine in five innings and contributed at the plate, too. She was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

“I feel really good about our team,” Sanford said. “We’re young, but we’re a close team. Everyone is in the moment in the game. I can’t wait to see what happens this year.”

Pinecrest’s Jordan Blake had a rocky first inning when Lee County scored four runs on four hits, but she settled down the rest of the way. She limited the Yellow Jackets to one hit – by Sanford in the sixth inning. At the plate, Blake had an RBI on a sacrifice fly and tripled in the seventh inning. She scored to trim the deficit to 4-3.

Lee County improved to 4-1 with a third straight victory, while Pinecrest cropped to 3-2.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Lee County softball holds on against Pinecrest."