Gallery by Heather Belcher
Fairlea – Greenbrier East’s Taylor Boswell and Gracie Gumm are each batting about .100 points lower than they were a year ago.
Both seem to have busted the slumps they’ve struggled with this season.
The seniors swatted a home run each as East dominated in almost every facet of a 5-1 win over Beckley in the Class AAA Region 3 Section 2 tournament Wednesday in Fairlea.
With the win East moves into the title game where it will await and host the winner of Thursday’s elimination matchup between Beckley and Princeton.
While the home runs were the highlight of the night, the Spartans didn’t rely on them exclusively. In fact they scored their other three runs on balls that never left the infield, putting on a base-running clinic that constantly put stress on Beckley’s all-state pitcher Aubrey Smallwood.
“With Aubrey on the mound, we know coming into the game it’s going to be a close game and we have to manufacture (runs),” East head coach Aaron Ambler said. “We were ready to put pressure on them whether it was stealing or bunting the ball and making them play defense. With her on the mound, one or two runs is huge, because you’re not, a lot of times you’re not gonna get more than that. We hit the ball a little bit better tonight than we had last time against her. You know, we got a few timely hits as well. But with her on the mound we’re always looking to manufacture.”
Beckley, which was tasked with solving East hurler Kayla Bartley, struggled to do so when it mattered most.
The Flying Eagles stranded seven runners on base, five in scoring position.
“Yeah, that’s exactly right,” Beckley head coach JR Bird said. “That’s what I told them just a second ago. You know, we left a lot of runners on base and you’re one or two hits away from being right there. And that’s basically what it boils down to.”
Beckley’s first scoring opportunity came in the second inning when Kacie Fraley stroked a one-out double but Bartely made quick work of the No. 6 and 7 hitters in the lineup to escape unscathed.
Smallwood meanwhile wasn’t as fortunate.
A walk and single to open the bottom of the second put Bartey and Lily Carola on base and eventually in scoring position. With one out, Gumm hit a short grounder that rolled into foul territory before inching back fair, allowing Bartley to score and Gumm to reach base.
After securing the second out via strikeout, Smallwood was again the tough-luck loser on a ball that never left the infield as the speedy Reagan Cline laid a bunt that scored Carola to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.
“They’re very fundamentally sound,” Bird said. “They run the bases well, they’re gonna bunt well, they’re gonna have timely hitting even against our good pitching. They had some timely hits. And then when you get runners on, you got to move them around.”
Boswell joined the party in the third inning, blasting her third home run of the year while Gumm notched hers in the sixth. Cline, flashing her speed, followed with a triple and scored on an Alanis McClary bunt for East’s final run.
“I would say really all of our girls right now have seemed to come on here at the end,” Ambler said. “We tell them in the beginning we’re gonna try to play one of the toughest schedules we can get. From Morgantown to Huntington and Myrtle Beach, we try to find the best games we can, win or lose. I think it pays off this time of year when you see that competition throughout the regular season. So I think and hope they’re gelling right now and playing their best softball.”
While the bats backed her up, Bartley continuously held up her end of the bargain, working out of jams in the top of the third and fifth innings. With Smallwood, batting No. 3, at the plate and a pair of runners on each time, Bartley coaxed a fly-out and strikeout to avoid any damage.
Beckley’s lone run came in the top of the sixth, an inning that started with promise.
A single and a double put a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Taylor Scott eventually drove in the first runner on a short grounder back to the pitcher but with the tying run thrice coming to the plate, the Flying Eagles couldn’t find a way to push more than one across.
“We debated a little bit a couple of times, maybe we had a base open that we think, at least once that we could have put (Smallwood) on but Kayla pitched her pretty well the first time around when we played back in March and again tonight,” Ambler said. “She pitched out of some jams. I think early she missed some spots a little bit. But with Kayla, a lot of times she gets stronger as the game goes on. I think her velocity even kind of crept up later in. It’s probably more than what it was in beginning of the game.”
East now sits in the driver’s seat, needing one more win to clinch the sectional title. Beckley or Princeton will need to win three games in a row to eliminate the Spartans and claim the sectional crown.
