Lady Seahawk Ham notches 500th strikeout

During the 2019-20 varsity softball season, the record books show that then seventh-grade pitcher Sarah Ham pitched a single inning.

At the end of the season her stats, if they can be trusted, showed that she had given up two hits, one of them a double, and nine runs, walked three and struck out just one.

If ever a pitcher has blazed past that opening season it is the Franklin County Lady Seahawk junior.

She’s done exactly what a dedicated ballplayer has to do, improve her performance every successive season, whiffing 104 as an eighth grader, and then 168 as a freshman and 224 as a sophomore, all the while steadily lowering her earned run average.

This season, in the opener against Wakulla, the pitching ace secured a pitching milestone by notching her 500th varsity strikeout, putting a stamp on it with a backwards K in the top of the second.

Number 15 finished with nine strikeouts on the night, giving up just four hits and two earned runs against a powerhouse Class 4A school. Ham also went 2 for 3 at the plate, with a double, stole a base and scored a run. 

Defensively, she prevented a laser shot from smacking her in the middle right side of her face with a lightning fast catch. Her emotionless reaction, typical of her calm style, is one reason she has been nicknamed Cyborg.

A disastrous five-unearned-run third inning set the Lady Seahawks back on their heels early, and while they outscored the visitors 3-2 the rest of the way, it still amounted to a 7-3 loss.

Junior third baseman #44 Raegan Dempsey had one-hit and one RBI, while junior first baseman #3 Micahlyn O’Neal batted in two runs on a double, and scored a run, as did seventh grader shortstop #1 Shasta Butler.

Scott Collins’ team, which has no seniors, includes junior outfielder #23 Charity Larkin; two sophomores, #11 catcher Alexis Webb, and #27 outfielder Averie Johnson; and four freshmen, #2 outfielder Jayla Creamer, #7 second baseman Lilah Millender, #14 outfielder Ashton Carey, and #17 outfielder Jaelynn Millender.

To warm up for the regular season, the Lady Seahawks defeated Holmes County 4-1 in a game in Wewa, with Ham adding a bushel full of unofficial strikeouts to her varsity performance.

Collins, and assistants Melanie Collins, Allen Ham, Taylor Stalnaker and Mike Todd, got their first win of the season Monday with a 10-2 defeat of the Lady Wildcats in Altha.

Ham racked up 15 strikeouts and no walks in the game, giving up just one hit, a double, in six innings. Lilah Millender closed out the two-run seventh by giving up two hits and one earned run, striking out one and serving up a pop fly to center field to end the game.

Ham started the game off with a leadoff homer to left field, and finished the night by scoring three runs and driving in a fourth.

Dempsey smashed a grand slam at her second trip to the plate, and finished with five runs batted in. 

Butler went 2 for 4 with two runs batted in and one run scored, while O’Neal had a double and scored a run, and Lilah Millender two hits, one of them a double, and scored a run. Johnson had one hit and scored a run.