Gallery by Karen Akers
Beckley – Beckley softball coach Tony Maiolo was crowded with cupcakes and song to celebrate his birthday following the Flying Eagles game against Greenbrier West Wednesday.
But his big day took a backseat to the one sophomore pitcher Aubrey Smallwood’s had and all things considered, he was fine with that.
Smallwood struck out a career high 20 batters, facing just 23 all game in a 4-0 win over the Cavaliers in Beckley.
Smallwood cooked from the jump, striking out the first 10 batters she faced before allowing a single and a walk in the fourth inning. Neither ultimately mattered as she collected eight of the next nine outs via the strikeout with the only out collected in the field coming on a sixth-inning flyout to center field.
“She’s definitely on,” Maiolo said. “She’s a little upset about her batting, but she’s on it on the mound for sure.”
“Everything was working for me today,” Smallwood said. “I warmed up really well and I knew from the start it was going to be a good day for me and I was due.”
While West struggled at the plate it did little to help itself in the field, overshadowing a stellar performance from its own ace in freshman Brilee Redden who scattered four hits, struck out 13 and didn’t allow a single earned run.
“I think all four runs were unearned,” West head coach Tony Hinkle said. “The two games we’ve lost and were challenged, defense is what got us. You’ve got to have a defense behind your pitcher. No earned runs, we could very possibly still be playing right now 0-0. You’ve got to play good enough defense behind your pitcher. She did a good enough job to win but you’ve got to put runs on the board.”
Beckley took advantage of the Cavs’ miscues in the field early.
Jazzy Daubert got things rolling with a leadoff single for Beckley in the bottom of the first before advancing to second with two outs. Redden and Co. seemed headed for an easy enough inning before a ground ball by Brooke Bird was fielded and thrown to first where it was dropped, allowing Daubert to score the game’s first run.
The top of the order again gave Redden trouble in the third inning when Daubert reached on a one-out error, scoring with two outs when Smallwood tripled on a sinking liner to right field.
“(Daubert) had a great day,” Maiolo said. “Usually how she goes is how we go. She’s been hot lately so I hope she can stay hot next week.”
Bria Blume, courtesy running for Smallwood, scored on a passed for the third run of the game.
Redden held steady on the other end, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning but her defense struggled again in the sixth when a leadoff walk was allowed to score after a pair of two-out errors.
Meanwhile the Cavs’ only serious threat on offense came in the fourth inning when Smallwood yielded a one-out single to Redden and a two-out walk to Julia Herndon. Strikeout No. 11 diffused that threat and West never came close to replicating that level of success the rest of the way.
“We were just talking, that’s our 20th game and we haven’t seen anything like that,” Hinkle said. “We were looking forward to facing (Smallwood) because if we want to get to where our end game is this year, we’re going to see something similar to her. It was a challenge for us and we could’ve tried to throw a little more small ball but we wanted our hitters to experience that and see what we could do.”
For Smallwood the matchup with Redden, one of the top hurlers in Class A, was one she had circled and for good reason. She’s been efficient when facing some of the top pitchers in the state this season. In 28 innings she’s 4-0 with a 0.75 ERA this season against Redden and first-team all-staters Delaney Buckland (Independence) and Tayven Stephenson (St. Albans) with the latter having earned State Player of the Year honors in 2021.
“I definitely look and know who we’re playing that week and I get ready for them,” Smallwood said. “I start by throwing sand balls and throwing as hard as I possibly can. I always think I do better against the higher level pitchers like Tayven, Delaney and Brilee and it just forces me to realize one mistake can have a huge impact on the game.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
