Mike Ridaught
The streak continues for the Trenton softball team.
On Friday night in front of a packed house at Trenton, the Tigers defeated Dixie County, 3-1, to move to 6-0.
It was the 43rd straight win for Trenton, which has not lost a game since falling to Wewahitchka in the 2018 Class 1A state championship game.
Senior pitcher Darian Ingram allowed an unearned run on just four hits with four walks and 14 strikeouts. She also finished 2-for-3 at the plate.
Dixie County (9-1) threatened in the top of the first, putting their first two batters on with no outs, but Ingram came back to strike out the side.
“Darian pitched great,” said Trenton coach Todd Bryant. “We knew that if she limited the walks that they weren’t going to hit her too much.”
Trenton scored the only runs it would need in the bottom of the third inning.
Florida Gulf Coast signee Lillian Wilkerson led off the inning with a single to left field. She moved to second on a sacrifice by Jordan Douglas.
Leadoff hitter Adrian Ingram hit a ball to right field that was misplayed and led to a three-base error, scoring pinch runner Ryleigh Weeks to give Trenton a 1-0 lead.
Then catcher Ellie Sessler laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Ingram for a 2-0 lead.
“Those two runs helped us tremendously from a confidence standpoint,” Bryant said.
The Bears cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth.
After an infield hit by Juliann Smith with one out, Smith stole second and then went to third on a wild pitch. She scored an out later on third baseman Brandy Dees’ throwing error.
Trenton’s Keeli Zingaro, a Stetson signee, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to give the Tigers some insurance heading into the final inning.
The Bears put a runner on with one out but failed to score in the top of the seventh.
“Dixie County definitely deserves to be in the top four in the state in 1A,” Bryant said. “There’s no doubt. The sad thing is, one of us is going to end up not going to the final four. And at the end, I think we’ll both deserve to go.”
This was the first of two meetings between the Bears and the Tigers. Dixie County will host Trenton on Friday, April 16.