Polk County’s softball team hit its first bump in the road of the season on Wednesday. Head coach Jeff Wilson is curious to see how the Wolverines will respond.
Smoky Mountain pitcher Micayla McCoy frustrated Polk’s offense and added a two-run home run to lead the Mustangs to an 8-2 win over the Wolverines at Polk County.
Handing Polk County (4-1) its first loss of the season, McCoy was knocked around, allowing 11 hits, but worked efficiently with runners on base to repeatedly escape jams. The last of those came in the seventh, when Kassidy Reynolds and Haley Fowler singled before Autumn Owen drilled a double to right-center to score Reynolds. But with runners on second and third and no outs, McCoy was able to escape the inning without added damage.
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“We couldn’t put anything together,” Wilson said. “We didn’t play pumped up. We didn’t get into any kind of rhythm early on.
“We had two or three teachable moments at the end of the game when the outs are more precious and we have to continue to swing the bats. We’ll see what we do going forward.”
Polk trailed 2-1 after the first inning, scoring its run when Hayley Kropp singled home Fowler. McCoy hit her two-run blast in the third to make it 4-1, and the Mustangs added runs in the fourth and fifth to widen the lead.
Fowler had three hits to lead Polk County, with Owen and Maranda Gosnell each adding two hits.
The Wolverines are scheduled to play again on Friday, hosting Mitchell in a Western Highlands Conference game.
