Faith Christian, Trinity battle through double no-hitter

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on April 20, 2007 3:13 PM

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No hits, no problem.

At least that was the case for Faith Christian on Thursday afternoon. The Conquerors parlayed eight Trinity Christian errors and seven walks into eight runs in their 8-1 victory over the Tigers.

Both starting pitchers, Jennifer Christopher of Faith Christian and Lauren Moore of Trinity, held the opposition hitless.

Christopher (7-3) had a much stronger outing than her counterpart as she allowed only two walks and displayed excellent poise on the mound.

"Jennifer's very, very consistent," said Faith Christian coach Jeff Stocks. "If she walks one or two in a game she's off. She throws strikes and locates the ball well. She makes very few mistakes in the field."

Mistakes and oddities were plentiful on this afternoon. The two teams combined to commit 12 errors and accomplished some feats rarely seen on the diamond.

The Conquerors (8-3, 4-0) scored eight runs without a hit and with the aid of only one RBI.

Despite her seven walks, Moore managed to strike out 15 Faith Christian batters -- including four during the sixth inning.

Faith Christian also managed to score all but one runner that made it on base during the game -- including having a runner come home during the four strikeout inning by Moore.

Of course, the most stunning event of the afternoon was the two hitless teams. A feat Stocks had never witnessed before.

"No, I've never (seen anything like that) and I hope I don't see many more of these games," Stocks said. "I'd like to see some more hits involved. We scraped together runs, but it wasn't pretty."

Unlike her counterpart Moore, Christopher rarely put herself into any trouble and her defense made sure there'd be no cheap hits for the Tigers.

The sophomore dominated, getting the batters she faced to either strike out or ground out on virtually every at-bat. It wasn't until the fifth inning that Trinity would threaten.

A lead-off walk to Brittany Tucker, a fielder's choice where Tucker was called safe and an error by Christopher loaded the bases with no outs.

Christopher never lost her composure as she got Bethany Manning to strike out -- one of seven she recorded during the game. She then got Brittany Morris to hit into a fielder's choice, but an ill-advised throw by Renee Provencal allowed Webb to score.

Christopher made sure the run would be all Trinity would get as she would get Kaitlyn Williams to ground out to end the threat.

Faith Christian didn't have the same problem of getting runners home as the Conquerors stayed aggressive on the bases to push runs across.

Provencal was perhaps the most aggressive of the Conquerors. The vocal catcher reached base three times via walks and, once there, was a force on the base paths as she stole three bases and scored two runs.

"She's one of the slower girls on the team, but she's very aggressive," said Stocks.

The aggressiveness by the Conquerors allowed them to score the eight runs. The runners got into scoring position by stealing any chance they got.

"We have a lot of speed," said Stocks. "We dare the catcher to throw us out. If we get on base, we are going."

Four of the Conquerors runs were scored off a Moore wild pitch while three others came home via errors.

All together, Faith Christian recorded seven steals, led by Provencal and Kaitlyn Floars who added two.

Despite their patience to take walks and their stolen bases, Stocks was incredibly frustrated with his young team's inability to get hits.

"I think sometimes that's our problem -- the girls are looking to walk instead of being aggressive at the plate and I think that hurts us," said Stocks, whose team features predominantly sophomores. "We just don't hit the ball, I can't explain it. We're a very good hitting team in practice.

"I think it's a mental thing."

When Faith Christian gets a pitching performance like the one it got from Christopher, the Conquerors don't need to worry about hits so much though.

As Caitlyn Bowgher popped up to shortstop Brook Anderson for the game's final out, Christopher accepted congratulations from all her teammates and her coach.

"It was pretty fun," said Christopher of the no-hitter. "I don't know if I've ever done it before, but it's nice that I did it."

Trinity 000 010 0 -- 1 0 8

Faith 213 101 x -- 8 0 4

Leading Hitters -- Trinity -- Brittany Tucker 0-2, R. Faith -- Renee Provencal 0-0, 2 R; Lindsey Godwin 0-2, RBI, R; Brook Anderson 0-2, 2 R; Courtney Albritton 0-2, 2 R.

LOB -- Trinity 4, Faith 1. SB -- Provencal 3, Floars 2, Anderson, Albritton. CS -- Godwin.

IP H R ER BB SO

Trinity

Moore (L) 6 0 8 3 7 15

Faith

Christopher (W, 7-3) 7 0 1 0 2 7

WP -- Moore 7. T -- 1:15.