AMELIA – For ten days after its season-opening victory against Prince Edward, the Buckingham County High School softball team was relegated to playing intra-squad scrimmages. Though last Thursday's game at Amelia County High School didn't afford the Lady Knights an opportunity to play a team wearing different colored uniforms, at least the fronts said something different.

As could be expected, Buckingham did show signs of rust in a 13-9 loss that included a total of four charged errors in the field.

“I think we're still getting a feel for our defense,” said BCHS head coach Krissy Stearrette. “I'm happy with our hitting, though we left multiple runners in scoring position. We're showing that our offense is there, now we've got to work on our defense.”

Buckingham's Kristin Jamerson scored a single run in the first, and after the Lady Knights gave up a run in the bottom of the second, they answered that with another run in the top of the third. Robyn Davis singled and later scored on a double by Chelsea Shumaker.

Then, Amelia put Buckingham in catch-up mode for the remainder of the game with six runs in the top of the third and another three in the top of the fourth to take a 10-2 lead.

The Lady Knights appeared to swing the momentum back with four runs in the top of the fifth. Jamerson singled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a double by Shumaker. Both scored on a two-RBI double by Sierra Coleman, who also scored when Tyshell Chambers hit BC's third double of the inning. She later scored on a wild pitch to pull BC back to within four at 10-6.

However, the Lady Knights would give back three runs in the bottom of the inning.

After a scoreless sixth for both teams, Buckingham managed to score three runs in its final opportunity against a defense content to trade runs for outs. Unfortunately for the Lady Knights, they only had three outs to score six runs, and their rally was cut short.

“They hit the ball well on us,” said Stearrette. “We made four errors, and they made some as well. Ours just came at more critical times. The difference in the game was that they were able to get a big inning, and we weren't. If we don't give up six runs in the third, and maybe give up only three, I don't know if we win, but we would have been in a lot better position.

“We're having to play defense in a totally different way than we have in the past. We have two pitchers that can throw and hit spots, but they're not going to get you 16 or 17 strikeouts per game. Other teams are going to put the ball in play. In the past, our defense hasn't had to face that type of pressure.”

Shumaker led the Lady Knights with a 3-3 performance and two runs scored. Coleman was 3-4 with three doubles, three RBI and two runs scored, while Chambers was 2-3 with an RBI and a run.

Though it's still march, this could be a critical week for Buckingham as it was scheduled to travel to Nottoway on Tuesday, before returning home to face Randolph-Henry on Thursday.

“We can't compare scores to try to judge how we will perform against a certain team. It doesn't work that way. We have to continue to play hard, and make as few mistakes as we can, and hope we can continue to hit consistently. The district seems to have a lot of equal teams. One bad loss could make you look like you're out of it, and then one win you maybe shouldn't have gotten can get you back into things. I think that's going to be the case for us and the rest of the league all year.”