After flying high against Ladue Horton Watkins last Thursday, Ritenour came back down to earth. The Ritenour Huskies fell just short of the Kirkwood Pioneers by a score of 7-6 on Thursday. The Huskies' defeat signaled the end of their five-game winning streak.
Leyla Payton was huge no matter where she played even without the win. She looked comfortable on the mound, pitching 4.1 innings while giving up just one earned (and three unearned) runs off five hits. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in hits. She was also stellar in the batter's box, firing off four doubles, two RBI, and two RBI while going 4-for-6.
In other batting news, Hailey Ebert made the most of her time at bat despite the final result and went 3-for-6 with a triple, two RBI, and two RBI. Grace Key was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 3-for-6.
Even though they lost, Ritenour didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with seven strikeouts. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 0 strikeouts per game earlier this season, but in their last five matchups they've averaged 7.
Ritenour's loss dropped their record down to 7-7. As for Kirkwood, the victory was the sixth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 7-15.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Ritenour is on the road again on Saturday to play Webster Groves at 9:00 a.m. As for Kirkwood, they will venture away from home to take on Affton at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
