Senior Nicole Wyatt fired a 3-hitter, and the West Bladen defense held Midway’s running game in check as the Lady Knights posted a 7-1 Four County Conference victory at Midway Friday night.
In their first meeting at West Bladen, Midway used a bunting and running attack to grab an early 5-0 lead, before the Lady Knights rallied for an 11-6 victory. In Friday’s game the Lady Raiders were limited to one bunt single, while West Bladen had 3 bunt singles.
“We handled their pressure,” said Lady Knight Coach Pam Stephens. “We turned the tables tonight and let them field some of our bunts. This was a big win for us.”
After Midway grabbed a 1-0 first inning lead, the Lady Knights answered with 2 runs in the second. Sophmore catcher Alanna Ludlum hammered a triple into the left field corner and scored the tying run on sophmore Kassidy Anderson’s bunt single.
Anderson stole second base, went to third base on sophmore Jenna Dove’s sacrifice bunt and darted home on sophmore Logan Autry’s fielder’s choice to edge West in front 2-1.
Sophmore Sophia Singletary walked to begin the Lady Knight third inning. Wyatt smashed a double that sent Singletary to third base. Sophmore Laikyn Pait knocked in both runners with a single to left-centerfield that padded the lead to 4-1.
Senior Morgan Sweeney pounded a double in the fourth inning and raced home when Singletary drilled a shot off the secondbaseman’s foot.
West Bladen stretched the lead to 6-1 in the sixth inning. Singletary beat out a bunt single and eventually scored on Wyatt’s single.
The Lady Knights tacked on a final run in the seventh. Dove walked, and Autry reached base on an error. Sophmore Kathryn Schultz legged out a bunt single to load the bases, and Sweeney’s fly ball plated Dove.
Wyatt batted 2-4 with a double and a run batted in to lead the Lady Knight hitters. Sweeney doubled, scored twice and drove in a run. Ludlum tripled and scored.
Pait cracked the 2-run single. Anderson, Schultz and Singletary added one bunt single each. Singletary, Dove and Anderson scored one run each. Anderson and Autry drove in one run each.
Wyatt struck out 3 and and walked none to pick up the complete game victory.
West Bladen improves to 4-2 in the league and 7-5 overall. The Lady Knights will travel to Union Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game.
About Author
