Nicole Sechrist delivers a pitch during Triton’s opener with Rochester at home in Bourbon Monday. (Photos by James Costello)

BOURBON — Rochester head coach Carla Holland describes her lineup this year as lightning and thunder. The Lady Zebras showcased a little of both while jumping on host Triton early in a 21-1 shelling in both teams’ season-opener in Bourbon Monday night.

The visitors put the pressure on the Lady Trojans with four hits — including a two-run home run by cleanup hitter Kennedy Musselman and a two-run double by Carly Beehler — and some aggressive base running while batting through the order in the top of the first. Triton’s inexperienced lineup committed a trio of costly errors in the inning, meanwhile, and the result was a nine-run first by Rochester that took the suspense out of it early.

“Offensively, the nice thing about our team this year is we’re pretty solid. We’ve got lightning, and we’ve got thunder. We’ve got the people that can get on base and the people who can hit them around,” explained Holland. “I think they’re disciplined at the plate; they’re very patient waiting for their pitch. It’s nice to be able to go up and down the lineup, that they can get on. So now what our team is doing is they’re competing for a batting order.”

The Zebras didn’t let up on Triton pitcher Nicole Sechrist in her first outing inside the circle, cranking out 11 hits — three for extra bases — and showing patience while drawing 10 walks. Sechrist also hit another two batters with pitches, and Rochester took advantage of the Trojans’ inexperienced battery by taking numerous extra bags on wild pitches and passed balls.

Kaci Pugh makes a play at first Monday.

Rochester leadoff Maci Brown went 2 for 3 officially and 4 for 5 on base with three runs and an RBI, while Alexis Elliott finished 4 for 5 on base with a single, three walks and three runs scored. Charlie Pocock went 3 for 4 on base with three runs and an RBI, and Mya Musselman reached base and scored in three of four plate appearances with an RBI in the eighth and ninth spots in the Zebras order.

With the graduation of pitcher Courtney Jennings last spring, sophomore Whytnie Miller was the likely next in line inside the circle for Triton but suffered an ACL tear in Triton’s last basketball game in February. Another potential pitching option, Taytum Hargrave, was on vacation in the midst of the Trojans’ spring break Monday, giving the home team few options to work with, and Sechrist soldiered on against a hot Rochester lineup in bitterly cold weather. Her move from short stop to pitcher also precipitated other shifts in the Triton infield, further complicating matters for the Trojan defense, which committed seven errors in the loss.

“We lost the kid that was probably going to pitch for us in basketball and then we take our short stop and now she’s pitching for us,” explained Triton coach Steve McBride. “Our middle infield is two freshmen. But we’re doing OK. I thought we kind of were a little shaky, obviously, and then I thought we kind of settled in. That’s a solid team. We’ve got to get better, but I think we will. The main thing is, nobody got down. We just kept battling. Hat’s off to Rochester; they’re a good ball club. We’ll keep working at it and do what we do every year — we just try to get better as we go along.”

Indeed, Triton showed improvement in real time in its first outing.

Sara Stevens attempts a bunt in the fourth inning.

After surrendering 15 runs while committing five errors over the first two innings, the Trojans settled in in the bottom of the second. Triton scored its only run of the night after Macie Irvine led off the second with a single through the gap at short. Irvine took second on a wild pitch, and with two outs, Sydney Alford put a ball in play back to Rochester starter Addy Harsh that was dropped by Kennedy Musselman at first, allowing Irvine to score. The Trojans left three on in the third, though, and never scratched out another run against their guests. But they did hold the Zebras to just two runs in each of the next three innings while committing just two more errors after a shaky start.

“I thought we relaxed a little bit. We had some errors early on. I think it was probably first-game jitters. Rochester has got some speed. They pressure you,” McBride said.

Triton returns to action at John Glenn on Wednesday.