By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Mother Nature has been quite kind thus far this spring to Coach Paula Armstrong and her North Adams Lady Devils softball squad. How? Through April 3, the Lady Devils had already played nine game, eight of them early season non-conference battles and one successful contest in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference.
The three North Adams losses have come to Lucasville Valley, Williamsburg (in extra innings) and Piketon. The Lady Devils have non-conference wins over Rock Hill, Waverly, Portsmouth West, Washington and Paint Valley, plus a March 31 4-1 win over the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats in their only conference game as of press time.
The Lady Devils are in the midst of a four-game winning streak and one of those was the victory over Whiteoak was the third of those. Playing on their home field, the North Adams girls had to rally late, scoring their four runs in their final two at-bats to break open a pitcher’s duel between freshman Marnie Tolle and Whiteoak’s Kyra Boyd.
Both pitchers put up goose eggs through four innings, the home team getting close in the bottom of the second when Marley Whalen reached on an error, went to second on a passed ball, stole third, but then was cut down at the plate attempting to score on a wild pitch. Lily Parker cracked a one-out double in the bottom of the third but was left stranded. After Tolle retired the Lady Cats in order in the top half of the firth, the Lady Devils broke the scoreless tie with two outs in their half. Ahlyesa Taylor reached safely on an error and then stole second. moving to third on a wild throw. Taylor came across with the game’s first run when a ground ball off the bat of Lily Parker was misplayed by the Whiteoak first baseman.
The Lady Cats evened the score in the top of the sixth when McKinley Mootz walked and later scored on a North Adams error. That deadlock didn’t last long as the Lady Devils scored three times in the bottom half, again doing their damage with two outs.
The rally began with a Paige Evans single to center, bringing catcher Chloe Armstrong to the plate. Armstrong wasted no time delivering the game-changing blow, driving the first pitch she saw over the left field fence to give her team a 3-1 lead. North Adams wasn’t done, however, as Gracie Williams followed the Armstrong blast by drawing a five-pitch walk. Williams stole second base and then raced home when left field Riley Woods slapped a base hit to center to make it 4-1.
In the top of the seventh, Tolle closed out the victory in style from the center circle, striking out the side to wrap up a conference win for the Lady Devils.
In the win, the North Adams girls managed just four hits off of Whiteoak’s Boyd, the big one being the two-run blast from Armstrong. Marnie Tolle tossed the seven-inning complete game, allowing just one hit and striking out 12 Lady Cats, improving her record to 3-1 and lowering her earned run average to 0.27.
The Lady Devils were back in action on both Monday and Tuesday, traveling to Portsmouth Clay and then hosting Ripley in another conference game. (Those scores were not available at press time.) A busy week continues for North Adams softball with two more SHAC outings, hosting Lynchburg on Thursday and traveling to West Union on Friday.
BOX SCORE
Whiteoak
000 001 0 —1
North Adams
000 013 x —4
Whiteoak Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Canada 3-0-0-1, Mitchell 3-0-0-0, Captain 3-0-0-0, Boyd 3-0-0-0, Davidson 3-0-0-0, Wyatt 2-0-0-0, Boggs 1-0-0-0, Garrison 3-0-0-0, M. Mootz 1-1-0-0, Ruark 1-0-1-0, Team 23-1-1-1.
N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Garrison 3-0-0-0, Tolle 2-0-0-0, Evans 3-1-1-0, Armstrong 3-1-1-2, Whalen 1-0-0-0, Williams 1-1-0-0, Woods 3-0-1-1, Wood 3-0-0-0, Taylor 2-1-0-0, Parker 2-0-1-0, Team 23-4-4-3.
Extra-Base Hits: Parker 2B, Armstrong HR
Whiteoak Pitching:
Boyd (L) 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
N. Adams Pitching:
Tolle (W) 7 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K
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