"She said, 'Make an error on the field and you have to get on (base) on offense,'" Brown said. "We tried to follow that rule."
There wasn't much enforcement required on this day, because the Patriots committed only one error, and everyone who came to the plate got on base.
In fact, each of the eight Lincoln hitters who played the entire game reached at least twice, and the Patriots cranked out 14 hits.
"I feel much better about it offensively. I'm really proud of them," Leffew said. "I told them, 'We don't need to have another game like (Thursday).' I don't know what I said or what happened that got them started hitting."
Burgin (5-14) started first, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. But the Bulldogs never scored again, and they didn't get a runner past first base in the last three innings of the six-inning game.
Burgin coach Matt Grimes said his team has started well and finished badly all too often this spring.
"It's the story of the whole season," Grimes said. "We start off well, but we can't put seven innings together."
Katlyn Hogue had three hits for Lincoln, driving in three runs with a pair of doubles. Becca Patterson had four RBIs and Brown had three, and they joined Alexis Gooch on the list of players with two hits each.
Brown drove in the Patriots' first two runs with a two-out single in the second inning. Gooch, Hogue and Patterson opened the third inning with consecutive singles, the last of them producing two runs to give them a 4-3 lead.
Four hits in the Fourth
There was a string of four straight hits in the fourth inning that included RBI doubles by Christie Day, Gooch and Hogue as Lincoln scored four times to take an 8-3 lead, and two more scoring innings made it a 10-run game and triggered the mercy rule.
Leffew said her players did exactly what they were supposed to do against Burgin start.er Nikki Bugg, who allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings, and reliever Paisley Carey, and her players agreed
"You need to hit the straight pitchers who don't throw junk," Brown said. "The ones who throw it right in there against you, you've got to bust it."
And Leffew said she was happy with a defense that made most of its mistakes in the first inning.
"At least (they) came at the beginning so they could get themselves out of it," she said.
Burgin had five hits, all off Lincoln starter Ashton Gooch. Brittany Dowell pitched two scoreless innings in relief, allowing only one baserunner.
Tiffany Shewmaker had two of those hits, as well as the Bulldogs' only RBI.
Burgin stranded seven runners - three more were thrown out on the basepaths - as it lost its fifth straight game, and Grimes said there just aren't enough big bats in the lineup to get them around as often as needed.
"We don't have the depth in our lineup," he said. "A lot of it is (that) the girls pick up a bat on Feb. 15 and put it down at the end of the season."
* * *
Burgin . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 5 1
Lincoln County . . . . 0 2 2 4 2 3 - 13 14 1
Nikki Bugg, Paisley Carey (4) and Shelby Lilly. Ashton Gooch, Brittany Dowell (5) and Alissa Patterson. W-As. Gooch. L-Bugg. 2B-Christie Day (LC), Alexis Gooch (LC), Katlyn Hogue (LC) 2, Becca Patterson (LC).
