Independence softball head coach Ken Adkins has never shied away from putting his team through the rigors of a brutal schedule.
Over the final week of the regular season, Adkins has not waivered in his preparation for the upcoming postseason.
Following three straight road games this week against Westside, Greenbrier East and Winfield, the Patriots lined up against Beckley Thursday night.
If the ladies from Coal City were road weary, they sure didn’t show it.
Powered by 10 hits and a stellar performance from Emma Lilly in the circle, Independence blanked Beckley 9-0 in six innings.
“I make no qualms about it, and the kids know. I take great pride in getting wins against the teams in (Raleigh) County,” Adkins said. “I told them before we got off the bus today to just play like they can play. This makes my day and it propels us into the sectional (tournament) on a high note.”
The Patriots were not exactly primed for a great performance Thursday.
“We had Westside (Monday) and get back at 12 o’clock. Then we go to Greenbrier East and play a really tough game,” Adkins said. “We get back from that game at 11:30 to 12 o’clock. We got back at 1:30 this morning after losing a heart-breaker down at Winfield. I almost fell asleep at the stop light today. That is how tired I am.”
The loss at Winfield was a gut punch, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Generals on a walk-off that resulted from a controversial call at the plate.
However, Independence did not appear any worse for the wear Thursday taking the early lead and never looking back.
A two-out double from Keandra Spurlock scored Alli Hypes who had singled two batters earlier for a quick 1-0 lead.
The Patriots added three runs to their advantage in the second.
Kassidy Bradberry strolled into second base on a dropped fly ball before she scored on a sharp single from Savannah Stanley.
A bases loaded walk to Hypes and a sacrifice fly from Emma Lilly made it 4-0 before Beckley hit for the second time.
The Flying Eagles were coming off of a solid win Wednesday over Bluefield and have a sectional battle with Greenbrier East lurking Friday night with seeding potentially on the line.
“It seemed like we were looking ahead,” Beckley head coach J.R. Bird said. “We didn’t play well at all. Give Independence all of the credit in the world, but we played about as bad as we could play.”
“We have been on the road and got home late last night and Tuesday night,” Bird continued. “That may have played into it, but this game didn’t totally surprise me. We have been hitting pretty good and we just didn’t do anything tonight.”
Although the Patriots continued to do solid work at the plate, the big story of the day was Emma Lilly in the circle.
Lilly pulled her own version of Keyshawn Johnson’s, “give me the damn ball,” earlier in the day.
“She threw last night and we didn’t finish down there until 10 o’clock,” Adkins explained. “She called me on the phone today and wanted to know who was pitching. I told her walking off of the field last night that when she is the good Emma, she is as good as there is. She can play with anybody when she wants to.
“She told me she wanted to go,” Adkins went on to say. “She wasn’t as good today as she was yesterday, but this was a big deal for her. This was a (former Indy all-state pitcher) Delaney Buckland type of a back-to-back performance against good teams.”
Over her six innings of work, Lilly allowed just one hit which came with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The only threat of the night by the home squad came in the bottom of the second when Indy handed out some charity of its own.
A pair of walks and a throwing error on a pick-off attempt put runners at second and third will only one out.
A ground ball back to Lilly, who nailed the runner at the plate, and a strikeout kept things clean for the Patriots who tacked on three more in the fourth.
Emma Simpson led off with a single and scored on a one-out double from Hypes. Lilly then singled to move Hypes to third and took second on the throw home. Spurlock ripped a 1-2 pitch to right field plating both runners for a 7-0 lead.
The big rip for the all-stater came after a conversation with Adkins and some encouragement from Hypes.
“This is her time. She just feels like she has to legitimize what she is doing,” Adkins said. “She gets in her head sometimes trying to prove things to people. Sometimes I am a psychiatrist on the sideline.”
The Patriots put the game away in the sixth inning.
Allie Warden reached on an error, advancing to second when the throw got away at first. Hypes then scorched a rocket through the infield for her second double of the game, scoring Warden for an 8-0 lead.
An errant throw back to the infield moved Hypes to third where she scored on a sacrifice fly from Lilly.
“What we are trying to accomplish is to get into a place where we are playing well,” Adkins said. “We didn’t hit as well as I hoped we would down at Winfield, but we couldn’t have played much better last night. We needed this game. We didn’t want to go in there losers of three straight.”
