Peebles sophomore Madison Pierce was perfect on April 13, blanking the West Union Lady Dragons 15-0.

Sophomore hurler strikes out 16 for Lady Indians – 

Story and photos by Mark Carpenter – 

A dominating spring continued last week for Peebles sophomore pitcher Madison Pierce as the Lady Indians traveled to West Union on April 13 to battle the Lady Dragons in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. Fresh off a shutout, 16-strikeout performance at Eastern Brown, Pierce repeated that feat but this time took it one step further, retiring all 18 batters she faced, with only two putting the ball in play, as she fired a perfect game in a 15-0 win for the Lady Indians.
Pierce fanned the first eight hitters she faced before West Union’s Mackenzee Davis made contact and grounded back to the mound for the final out of the bottom of the third. That only began another strikeout streak of six straight before Jaycee Baldwin led off the bottom of the sixth with a ground out to first base. Of course, Pierce then whiffed the game’s final two batters to achieve perfection for the day.
“She is only a sophomore, but throws like a senior out there,” Peebles head coach Doug McFarland told reporters.
The Peebles offense got rolling early, picking up two runs in the top of the first off of West Union starter Mackenzie Bickett. Leadoff batter Hailey Moore, who scored four times in the game, walked and stole second, then went to third when Pierce reached on an error. Ground outs by Kylie Sims and Josie Myers brought both runners home for a 2-0 lead.
Peebles added one more in the top of the second when a run scored on another West Union miscue, then tacked on two more in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Jerilin Toller and another RBI ground out by Sims.
The Lady Indians made it 8-0 in the top half of the fifth on an RBI triple down the left field line by Rebeccah Kinnett, and a pair of Lady Dragon errors brought home two more. The Peebles offense then broke things wide open in the top of the sixth when they exploded for a seven-spot, getting runs batted in from Moore, Pierce, Toller, Sims, Hope Brown, and Kierra Stone to push their advantage out to double digits.

Peebles’ Rebeccah Kinnett slides safely into third base under the tag of West Union third baseman Summer Grooms.

All that remained to finish off the run-rule win was the bottom of the sixth where Pierce took care of business as the Lady Indians improved to 5-1 on the spring (4-0 SHAC) and dropped West Union to 0-4 (0-4 SHAC).
In the win, the Peebles offense pounded out 15 hits, 3 by Toller, and 2 apiece from Myers, Kinnett, and Matti Nichols. Catcher Kylie Sims drove in four runs, with Moore and Toller driving home a pair each.
The Lady Indians faced a busy week after the win over West Union, beginning with a conference showdown on Monday, April 17 with the Fairfield Lady Lions, the only team to defeat Peebles last season in the SHAC. On Tuesday, the Lady Indians were slated to host Eastern Brown, then travel to Lynchburg on Wednesday, host Manchester on Thursday, and then take the trip to northern Ohio over the weekend to participate in the Akron Fire Tournament.
The Lady Dragons continued the search for their first win on Monday with a conference trip to Ripley, then hosted the North Adams Lady Devils on Tuesday. On Thursday, West Union is scheduled to host Lynchburg.

Peebles
210 237 –15
W. Union
000 000 –0

Peebles Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Moore 3-4-1-2, Pierce 5-3-1-1, Toller 4-1-3-2, Sims 4-0-1-4, Myers 4-1-2-1, Brown 5-1-1-1, Nichols 2-1-2-0, Stone 2-1-1-1, Dunigan 4-1-1-1, Kinnett 4-2-2-1, Team 37-15-15-14.

W. Union Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Holbrook 2-0-0-0, Grooms 2-0-0-0, Bickett 2-0-0-0, Welch 2-0-0-0, Dozier 2-0-0-0, M. Brown 2-0-0-0, Baldwin 2-0-0-0, Caldwell 2-0-0-0, Davis 1-0-0-0, L. Brown 1-0-0-0, Team 18-0-0-0.

Winning Pitcher: Pierce
Losing Pitcher: Bickett