By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Coach Paula Armstrong and her North Adams Lady Devils softball squad are off to their best start in years and opening some eyes around the Southeast District and the Southern Hills Athletic Conference. As of press time, the Lady Devils had played 12 games, winning nine of them and stood 3-0 in the SHAC, with still a long way to go in conference play.
Through their 12 outings, the Lady Devils offense had outscored their opponents 79-29, led by the booming bat of freshman Chloe Armstrong. After 12 games, the North Adams freshman was hitting .500 (20-40) with 13 runs batted in and eight extra-base hits, including three home runs. A quartet of teammates also stood at over .300 at the plate- seniors Paige Evans (.302) and Carlee Garrison (.349), plus sophomores Lilly Parker (.345) and Riley Woods (.351).
In the center circle, the combination of Garrison and freshman Marnie Tolle have fanned 87 opponent’s hitters in 76 innings of work with a sparkling earned run average of 0.91.
Last week, the Lady Devils won all three of their scheduled contests, defeating Portsmouth Clay in non-conference action and then getting conference wins over Ripley and Lynchburg.
North Adams was on the road at Clay on April 6 and it was Armstrong driving home five runs, including a first inning homer, to pace the Lady Devils to a 7-3 win.
The visitors jumped out early with the Armstrong three-run blast in the top of the first and until the top of the fifth, both pitchers, Garrison for North Adams, put nothing but zeroes on the board. In the top of the fifth, the Lady Devils added four to their lead, all coming with two outs. The first two runs came home on a Clay error and then a base hit by Armstrong brought home Evans and Tolle to make it 7-0.
Clay got three of those runs back in the bottom half of the fifth off of Garrison, but Tolle came on in relief for the final two frames, allowing just one base runner to sew up a North Adams win.
The following day, the Lady Devils were back home to face a struggling Ripley team in conference action and the home side dominated from the get-go, scoring in all four of their at-bats on their way to posting a decisive 16-2 run-rule win.
North Adams tallied four in the bottom of the first, taking advantage of some sloppy Ripley defense and getting a run-scoring double from Armstrong and a later two-run two-bagger off the bat of Melanie Wood. The Lady Devils played add-0n in the bottom of the second when Ahlyesa Taylor singled, Ashlyn Fields reached on an error and both rode home on a two-base hit to left by Tolle. A triple to right center by Garrison brought Tolle across and after Garrison scored on an Evans ground out, the Lady Devils held a comfortable 8-0 advantage.
The Lady Jays got on the board in the top of third on a Brooklyn Manning RBI single, but the Lady Devils answered right back with five more in their half of the inning, getting an RBI base hit from Evans followed by another Armstrong three-run bomb, this one clearing the center field fence and making it 12-1. later in the frame, the fifth run came in on a base hit by Lilly Parker. North Adams tacked on three more in their half of the fourth, while Ripley picked up one more in the top of the fifth but it was too short for the Lady Jays as the Lady Devils rolled to the 16-2 triumph.
Two days later, on April 9, the Lady Devils showed they could win a different style of game, a low-scoring pitcher’s duel instead of a big-bat blowout. Coach Armstrong’s squad hosted the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs and the story was the work of Carlee Garrison in the circle, as she tossed a complete game, scattering eight hits, allowing just one run and striking out 10 Lady Mustangs in a 3-1 victory for the home side.
The game was scoreless until the top of the third when Lynchburg pushed across a single score, only to see the Lady Devils respond in the bottom half with a two-spot. North Adams added what turned out to be the game’s final run in the bottom of the fourth when Chloe Armstrong tripled to left and came home on a Marley Whalen sacrifice fly. The rest of the game belonged to the pitchers, Garrison and Lynchburg’s Aubrey Roberts and Noel Barnhill. Garrison made the two-run lead stand up as she blanked the Lady Mustangs over the final four innings and North Adams had their third conference win in the bag.
“We have played some tough non conference teams to start the season and we are looking forward to the challenge of the SHAC games in the weeks ahead,” said Coach Armstrong. “This week will test us for sure. This is such a fun team of girls to coach. We have all the pieces to have an exciting season; pitching has been excellent, hitting is improving every game, and our defense is the best we have ever had. They are a fun team to watch!”
The Lady Devils were hitting hard in conference play this week, three match ups against three challenging opponents, three games which should give some idea of what the big school standings might shape up as. On Monday, April 13, the Lady Devils traveled to Fayetteville, then host the Fairfield Lady Lions, 5-0 in SHAC action, on Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, April 16 will see North Adams on the road again to face the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors, who sported a 7-1 record at press time.
(Update: The Chloe Armstrong power display continued on Monday night in Fayetteville as the freshman slugger went deep not once, not twice, but three times and drove home seven runs as the Lady Devils improved to 10-3 with an 11-8 extra-inning victory. Armstrong’s three-run blast in the top of the eighth was the difference in the game.)
Box Score
Ripley
001 01 —2
North Adams
445 3x—16
Ripley Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Taylor 3-1-2-0, Short 3-0-1-0, manning 2-0-1-1, Fultz 3-0-0-0, Himes 2-0-0-0, Inlow 2-0-0-0, Brock 2-0-2-0, Fulton 2-0-0-0, Powell 2-1-1-0, Team 22-2-6-1.
Extra-Base Hits: Taylor 2B
N. Adams Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Tolle 3-2-1-2, Garrison 4-3-2-1, Evans 4-2-2-2, Armstrong 3-2-2-4, Woods 4-2-3-2, Wood 2-0-2-2, Johnson 1-0-0-0, Parker 4-0-1-1, Taylor 3-2-1-0, Bolton 0-1-0-0, Fields 2-2-0-0, Hancock 1-0-1-0, Team 31-16-15-14.
Extra-Base Hits: Wood 2B; Armstrong 2B, HR; Tolle 2B; Garrison 3B
Ripley Pitching:
Short (L) 4 IP, 15 H, 16 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
N. Adams Pitching:
Tolle (W) 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 9 K
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