Williams leads Cougars to doubleheader sweep

As the team’s leadoff hitter, Lindsey Williams’s job is to get on base to give her teammates on the Columbia College softball team a chance to win.

Now, after the team lost one of its best players, she will be counted on even more to produce, and, while she’s at it, learn a new position.

In the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against Hannibal-LaGrange, Williams, the team’s regular center fielder, played shortstop in place of senior Ashley Perrigo, who has left the team.

Perrigo, who was the team’s everyday shortstop, finished second on the team in RBI’s in 2006 with 40. After a doubleheader split with William Jewell on Mar. 8, the Cougars met for nearly a half an hour on the field. Perrigo was one of the most vocal of a group of players questioning coach Wendy Spratt’s coaching methods. Spratt acknowledged that Perrigo quit the team but declined to comment.

Katie McMahon, an infielder, handled the shortstop duties in Game 1 of the doubleheader, but Williams played the position in Game 2, which McMahon pitched. Williams made every play that came her way, and Spratt said she did a good job at the new position.

“Katie and Lindsey both did a great job at shortstop today, and we couldn’t ask for more from them,” she said. Williams also provided a spark for the Cougars offense. After Rachel Brawner singled in the first inning of Game 1, Hannibal-LaGrange pitcher Mindy Sims retired 14 straight Columbia College hitters. The game remained scoreless going into the bottom of the sixth, but with one out, Williams singled to break Sims’ streak. She reached second on an error and scored on Stephanie Stowe’s single. It was Stowe’s seventh RBI, which leads the team. The Cougars won 1-0.

“We had to make adjustments and we didn’t make adjustments until late,” Williams said. “It’s a simple fact of changing things up, and it took us a while to get there.”

Williams delivered again in Game 2. In the top of the fifth of a scoreless game, she came through with the Cougars only hit of the game, an RBI single scoring Amanda Hodges. Columbia College scored two runs in the inning and held on for a 2-1 victory. The sweep improved the Cougars to 6-6 and 2-0 in American Midwest Conference play while Hannibal-LaGrange fell to 5-8 and 0-2.

In Game 1, freshman pitcher Meghan Bailey again showed her ability to work out of tough situations.

She prevented Hannibal-LaGrange from breaking open the scoreless game several times in the early innings. Bailey scattered six hits and three walks and got out of several jams to record the complete game shutout and improve to 3-2. She said she does not get nervous in tight situations.

“I was just trying to stay positive the whole time,” she said. “Just keep my head, and not try to overdo anything. I knew the girls were behind me to back me up, so there was no pressure.”

Katie McMahon picked up the win in Game 2 to improve her record to 3-4. Spratt said she was impressed with both pitchers.

“Meghan and Katie both did a good job of keeping hitters off balance,”

she said. “You could definitely tell they were comfortable on the mound.”

Columbia College also played without Erin Sapp, who was out with a concussion, and Chris Schoonover, the team’s leading hitter last year, who was ill.

Williams, though, said she didn’t feel any extra pressure to produce with her team playing short-handed.

“I think we’re all capable of (getting on base),” she said. “There’s no pressure on anybody, everybody can do it, it’s equally shared with everybody, no pressure.”