ELGIN — With a fresh new No. 3 ranking in the Class 4A Texas Girls Coaches Association poll, the Elgin Lady Cats are staying focused.
It appeared to be all focus on Tuesday night as Elgin defeated rival Manor 11-0 in 4 1/2 innings.
Freshman pitcher Lauren Slatten picked up the win on the mound, recording 12 strikeouts in the shutout.
Slatten didn’t walk a batter and gave up just two hits to the Lady Mustangs.
Head coach Amanda Wolf said she felt her team was a little flat at the plate tonight, but was overall pleased with the effort.
Wolf, however, said she wasn’t going to talk about the ranking.
“These girls know what it takes and we are looking at it one game at a time,” she said. “We have been going and going and I thought we did a good job of putting it all together.”
Elgin (16-2, 2-0 District 17-4A) had a hard time in the first couple of innings getting used to Manor’s pitcher and her speed on her pitches, which was not as fast as the Lady Cats were used too.
Elgin did manage to get a couple of good touches on the ball while getting used to the speed.
Shelbi Swenson plated Megan Moore with an RBI-double in the first inning.
Kelsey Markham drove in Morgan Schultz  in the second and Bailey Alanis scored put the Lady Cats up 3-0 going into the fourth inning.
Slatten continued her dominance from the mound, striking out the side then Elgin’s bats woke up in the bottom of the inning.
Markham led off with a double and Kaci Olson was walked to set up Swenson’s second double to score Markham.
Hillary Adams got on base on a walk to load the bases and Alanis was walked to bring home Olson.
Schultz then hit her second double to drive in Swenson and Alanis, but it wasn’t over yet.
Schultz, Markham, Moore Chelsea Everage rounded out the eight-run inning.
Slatten closed out the game by striking out the first two batters and getting the third to fly out to Kelsey Markham to end the game by a mercy rule.
Wolf said after the game she was giving her team the day off on Wednesday.
“They’ve earned it,” she said.