AHOSKIE – Ridgecroft School opened their softball season Monday at home against Terra Ceia Christian School with a 22-1 Tarheel Independent Conference win in less than three innings.

Ruthie Daniels picked up the win in the circle, tossing a one hitter while walking three and striking out three. Beth Ann Russ took the loss for Terra Ceia allowing 22 runs on 11 hits while walking five with one strike out.

At the dish, Mackenzie Brown helped lead the way, going 2-for-2 and scoring twice. She also smacked a double and drove in a total of four runs. Reagan King also had four RBI, going 2-for-3 with three runs scored and banging her first home run of the season.

Elsewhere, Kathryn Outlaw was one-for-two with three RBI, a double, and a run scored. Shelby Hoggard scored three runs going 2-for-2, with a triple and a couple of RBI; and Grace Vaughan was two-for-three and drove in two runs.

Bianca Torres accounted for the Lady Knights’ only score, going 1-for-2 with 1 RBI.

“It was a good first win against a Terra Ceia team that was depleted in numbers for the game due to illness and injury,” said Ridgecroft coach Jon Northcott. “We hit the ball very well from top to bottom and our defense played an errorless game. I thought Ruthie pitched an excellent game for us today with a one hitter; she hit her spots and her changeup was working well. We have a lot of speed and I thought our aggressiveness on the base paths really kept the pressure on Terra Ceia’s defense.”

After a scoreless top of the first, The Lady Rams put this one away early, scoring 14 runs in the bottom of the inning on nine hits.

Leading the way with two hits apiece were Brown, Kaylie Simmons, and Vaughan. King and Outlaw each had a double in the inning and Hoggard added a triple.

After a 1-2-3 top of the second inning, Ridgecroft added on eight more runs in the bottom of the frame on a walk, two hit-batsmen, four errors, a single by Hoggard, and a three-run inside the park home run by King.

Terra Ceia scored their lone run in the top of the third on a walk to Alice Van Staalduinen and a two out run-scoring single by Torres. Down by such a large margin, the game was called after two-and-a-half innings.

“I saw a lot of good from today’s game,” added Northcott. “But as is always the case, there are still some things we need to work on to get better as a team.”

Ridgecroft is off until next Monday when they travel to play the Northampton County Wellness and Fitness Center to face Northeast Academy. The Rams’ scheduled game for today against Hobgood is cancelled but Hobgood decided to only field a JV team this year.