Ardmore's Karla Hice slides into home plate Thursday while Elkmont catcher Abby Gooch applies the tag. Hice was out on the play, but Ardmore still won the game 10-0.

Ardmore softball coach Stephen Baugh considers himself a defensive-minded coach, and Thursday’s game against Elkmont was an example of what focusing on pitching and defense can produce.

The Tigers got a one-hit shutout from pitcher Sydney Hall and committed just one error to Elkmont’s six in a 10-0 victory.

“I’m a defensive person,” Baugh said. “I believe pitching and defense is what wins championships. Hitting comes and goes in this game, but pitching and defense stays the same.”

Each practice, the Ardmore players find out once again just how much focus Baugh puts on the defensive part of the game.

“We stress that in practice,” Baugh said. “I know it’s repetitive, but I told the girls a week and a half ago that we’ll stop doing these drills when they stop making errors. In this game, you don’t have time to even make a bobble. You’ve got to catch it clean, get rid of it and make a good throw. Seventy-five percent of all errors are throwing errors.”

Thursday’s game between the county rivals was scoreless through two and a half innings, but Ardmore broke through with seven runs in the bottom of the third.

After the first two batters of the inning reached via errors, Karla Hice drove them both in with a triple. L.B. Smith then hit a single to plate Hice before Hall doubled to score Smith. The next run scored on a groundout by Olivia Stafford before the final two runs of the inning scored on an error when two outfielder collided trying to catch a fly ball.

“They helped us out with a few errors they usually don’t make and we took advantage of it,” Baugh said. “We’ve been stressing that we’ve got to hit the ball on the ground. When we put it in the air, anybody’s going to catch that, but if you put it on the ground, you at least make the defense make plays.”

Ardmore added two more runs in the fourth inning on RBI singles by Hall and Stafford and then ended the game in the bottom of the fifth when Mackenzie McCormack singled home the contest’s final run.

“We hit the ball hard for the most part,” Baugh said. “We’ve been struggling with popping the ball up, and that’s been a big emphasis the last few weeks. We did much better today.”

Hall was dominant in the circle for the Tigers, allowing just one hit while striking out six Elkmont batters without walking any. Of the 62 pitches she threw, 50 of them were for strikes.

Hice and Hall had two hits each, while Stafford had two RBIs for the Tigers. Autumn Davis had Elkmont’s only hit, a single in the top of the fifth inning.

Hannah Usery was tough-luck losing pitcher for Elkmont. Of the 10 runs Ardmore scored, only two of them were earned.

Ardmore advanced to the semifinals of the Class 5A state tournament last season, and if the Tigers continue to play like they did Thursday, there’s a good chance they’ll get at least that far this season, if not farther.

“We’re a team that has the potential to get back there,” Baugh said. “Honestly, we can beat anybody on a given day, but we could also lose to anybody on any given day. We have to come to work every single day, and that’s what it’s about. But we’re not worried about what’s ahead. We’re just worried about what we need to do to get better.”