By John Clark
ELIZABETHTOWN – West Bladen’s Lady Knights manufactured a pair of 1st inning runs, and senior Rylee Chadwick pitched a 3-hitter and struck out 9 batters to preserve a 2-1 Southeastern Athletic Conference softball victory over East Bladen Friday night.
Chadwick was hit by a pitch to start the game, and freshman Kali Allen pushed a high bunt by the pitcher’s circle for an infield hit. Senior Kylie Durden sliced a spinning grounder to 3rd base for an infield hit that scored Chadwick, and senior Kaitlynn Brisson lofted a sacrifice fly to center field that plated Allen for a 2-0 lead.
“It is always a battle when we play them,” said Lady Knight Coach Pam Stephens. “Two good pitchers pitched well, and we were fortunate to get those 2 early runs. We played some good defense behind Rylee. I am proud of my team.”
Junior 2nd baseman Gracie Faircloth’s diving backhand stop on a grounder then being able to flip the ball to shortstop Durden for a force-out in the 2nd inning highlighted the West defensive plays. In the top of the 2nd, East freshman 2nd baseman Cabria Baldwin went in the hole to snare a grounder then made the backhand flip to 1st baseman Gabriela Bray to end the inning.
Freshman Niyah Wooten hammered a triple to the fence in right-center field to start the Lady Eagle 4th inning then scored on an error to trim the lead to 2-1. Freshman Jenna Brice smacked a single to center field, but Chadwick regrouped and retired the final 12 East Bladen batters.
Chadwick, Allen, Durden and Faircloth connected for 1 hit each for West – all of them were infield hits. Chadwick and Allen scored runs, and Durden and Brisson had RBIs. The Lady Knights were the beneficiaries of 4 hit batters, 3 walks and 3 East errors but left 11 runners on base.
Wooten blasted the triple and scored the lone East run. Brice and Bray added 1 hit each. Senior Laura Davisson pitched a 4-hitter for the Lady Eagles and allowed 2 runs, 3 walks and 4 hit batters while striking out 4.
The Lady Knights improved to 4-0 in the SAC-7 and 8-5 overall and will travel to Fairmont Monday night. East Bladen, now 2-4 in the SAC-7 and 4-7 overall, are slated to travel to Wilmington Ashley Monday.
West Bladen 200 000 0 — 2-4-1
East Bladen 000 100 0 — 1-3-3
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