By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
A county softball rivalry was renewed on Tuesday, March 28 as the West Union Lady Dragons traveled to Manchester to battle the Lady Hounds. Both teams were coming off their opening games the day before, with very different results, the Lady Hounds downed Portsmouth Clay 10-2 while West Union fell to Huntington 17-2.
Tuesday’s outing didn’t go much better for Coach Miranda Grooms and her Lady Dragons as they fell behind early and never recovered as the Lady Hounds of Coach Matthias Applegate claimed a 10-0 six inning run rule victory to go 2-0 on the young season.
“Rylie Young pitched a great game,” said Coach Applegate. “We’re hitting the ball abtter and we didn’t commit a single error.”
The Lady Hounds rolled behind an eight-hit attack and the right arm of pitcher Rylie Young, who tossed a three-hit shutout while striking out 12 West Union hitters,
Manchester scored one run in the bottom of the first on a West Union error, then exploded in the bottom of the third for a six-spot. A Young double scored Jenna Campbell, who led off the inning with a triple. A single by Maggie Roberts drove home two more and Roberts came across on a base hit by Abby Neria. An Ashleigh Dunn ground out plated a run and the final score of the frame came on an RBI infield hit off the bat of Chloe Freeman.
While Young continued to stifle the Lady Dragons from the center circle, the Lady Hounds added a run in the bottom of the fifth on a Roberts sacrifice fly, then sewed up the win with a pair in the bottom of the sixth, an Emilee Applegate two-base hit getting Young home with the 10th and final run.
With those first two wins under their belt, the Lady Hounds still faced a challenging week ahead, traveling to Bracken County on Wednesday, Eastern Brown on Thursday and Whiteoak on Friday before finally returning home to face Sciotoville East in an 11 a.m. Saturday doubleheader.
The Lady Dragons were back in conference play on Thursday, hosting Whiteoak before traveling to Ripley on Friday to battle the Lady Jays. The West Union girls were also slated to see Saturday action, making the trip to Brown County to face Georgetown in another 11 a.m. double dip.