Braden River Ends Sebring Softball's Streak

The Blue Streak softball team broke its routine and Braden River broke Sebring's season-opening winning streak on Friday night.

Pirate pitcher Trisha Zuknick painted the outside corner on her way to a complete-game 8-3 victory to hand the Streaks their first loss of the season after opening with five straight wins.

The difference in game six? Maybe a bit too much free time.

"We didn't have school today so we didn't do stuff all day," said third baseman Priscilla Adams. "It seemed like we were down."

First-year Sebring coach Joe Sinness agreed that the intensity in the Sebring dugout was lacking, but he fell short of pointing at two free days as a reason for not playing well.

"Our routine was thrown off, but we can't use that as an excuse," Sinness said. "My guess is we got home late last night, with no school yesterday and no school today. The girls probably went out and slept in a little later today and that can throw you out of whack.

"We got complacent because we won a few games in a row, and we lost our intensity."

Sebring senior Sammie Lower, who led the Streaks with two hits, two RBI and two stolen bases, said the loss had a lot to do with solid pitching by Zuknick, who kept the Streaks off-balance by keeping her pitches off the plate.

"We were picking up on her, but we just couldn't adjust," Lower said. "But our mental mistakes were ridiculous tonight. Mentally, we need to be working on making those routine plays better."

Braden River took an early lead when clean-up hitter Kaycee Wells hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to score Lauren Powell from second and give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Sebring tied the game in the third when Sammie Lower smacked an RBI single to score Niki Helms and nearly added to its lead when Negrin hit a hot shot up the middle with the bases loaded for a would-be base hit, but it was snagged by Pirate shortstop Nicole Tira to end the inning.

The defensive gem then spurred Tira to give Braden River the lead in the next inning, as she knocked a triple to score Wells from third to put the Pirates up. Braden River added another on a sacrifice fly to score Tira and three more in the fifth when Kay Wells ripped a double off the left-center field wall and scored two batters later on a Sebring throwing error.

"They made a few mistakes, but we made more," Sinness said, noting Sebrings' five errors. "We just didn't come ready to play."

The Lower sisters provided a bit of offense in the fifth for Sebring, as Danielle Lower knocked a double into center field and Sammie Lower followed with a well-placed RBI single into left and scored on a Negrin groundout to bring Sebring within three at 6-3.

"I'm just trying to slow everything down and see the ball as long as I can," Sammie said. "I just go with my reaction."

But the Pirates reacted to Sebring's rally attempt and closed the door in the sixth when Tira knocked a bases-loaded single to score Powell and Wells and Zuknick did the rest to keep Sebring's bats at bay.

Zuknick finished with three strikeouts and five hits over seven innings, while Helms and Kayla Clemens combined to give up six Pirate hits. Helms had six strikeouts, and Adams was 2 for 3 at the plate.

The Streaks are back in action Tuesday at Lake Wales. They return home Friday against Booker.