Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Lindside – For six innings James Monroe booted the ball around, committing nine errors and making life difficult for ace Bryleigh Thomas.
But the Mavericks’ own bats made their mistakes moot.
James Monroe scored seven runs in the sixth inning en route to a 13-7 victory in the Class A Region 3 Section 1 title game Tuesday in Lindside.
With the win James Monroe advances to the Region 3 title game where it will face the Section 2 winner, either Midland Trail or Greenbrier West, next week in a best-of-three series.
The third time was the charm for a game rescheduled twice. Weather threatened to postpone it again and did so for about 30 minutes before the rain stopped for the evening.
But both teams still supplied their own thunder in game where the only scoreless inning was the seventh.
With momentum swinging back and forth, the Mavericks grabbed it for good in the bottom of the sixth and never relinquished it.
Trailing 7-6, their seven-run outburst put the game away.
“We want them to get in there and swing the bat,” James Monroe head coach Greg Wickline said. “They get three cuts at it. And, you know, we don’t want them swinging at balls which we’re very capable of doing but I would I’d rather get in there and take hacks at it and put the ball in play.”
Putting the ball in play was a recipe for success even though River View committed just one error in the loss.
After the Raiders took a 2-0 lead on runs scored by Hannah Honosky and Lilly Perkins in the top of the first, the Mavericks went to work immediately.
Grayson Dowdy was hit by a pitch out of the leadoff spot and bunt attempts from Shailyn Wickline and Chloe Bert stuck in the damp infield dirt, resulting in a pair of singles to load the bases. Thomas aided her own cause with a two-run double before Evey Hart collected the third bunt-single that scored another run.
Jordan Lowe tried her luck and came up empty on her bunt attempt but still drove the run in, expanding the lead to 4-2.
“We haven’t really been bunting very well but I’m kind of a small ball coach and we got a couple laid down,” Wickline said. “It lets the girls see when you get the ball put in play and you make things happen you know – advance runners, put runners in scoring position – then they kind of buy into that and then you get one after another. They definitely laid a few good bunts down tonight and I was pleased with that.”
The Mavs padded their lead with a run in the second on a Dowdy RBI groundout but the Raiders eagerly applied pressure of their own to the James Monroe defense which proved fruitful.
A trio of errors in the third allowed Brooke Fuller and Mileigh Goodman to score and bring the visitors to within a run. Their charge continued in the fourth when Honoksy singled, stole second and scored on a single from Perkins.
“It just kept turning into a slugfest and we just kept fighting blows,” River View head coach Chris Kelly said. “We played a good game except for two innings. The wheels kind of fell apart there in the last inning, in the sixth. I’m proud of the effort all the way around. Nobody hung their head and that’s all you’re gonna ask for.”
James Monroe snapped the tie in the fifth, scoring on River View’s only error of the night but the Raiders had the answer in the sixth.
Jackie Jones and Brooklyn Kennedy kicked off the comeback bid reaching on a single and an error. The throwing error at third that allowed Kennedy to reach plated Jones and the former scored on a wild pitch to make it a 7-6 game.
And then the wheels fell off.
The first seven Mavericks to bat in the bottom of the sixth all reached base with just one out recorded over that stretch.
Bert got it started with a double that scored Dowdy before an intentional walk was issued to Thomas to load the bases. Hart followed by working her own free pass that drove in another run with Lowe adding a run-scoring fielder’s choice.
Mary Beth Meadows was the final of the seven consecutive batters to reach, lining a double to extend the lead to 11-7. Two more run-scoring hits extended the Mavericks’ lead before Honosky coaxed a groundball out of the 12th batter she faced in the inning to bring it to a close.
The Raiders produced a baserunner in the bottom of the frame but nothing more in their last gasp as Thomas collected her 13th and 14th strikeouts of the evening to eliminate the possibility of another error.
Of the seven runs allowed by Thomas only one was earned.
“We’re struggling this year, It’s no secret,” Wickline said. “We’re kind of struggling a little bit this year but as far as making the routine plays, we have not been very good to Bryleigh. Really she should be throwing 85 To 100 pitches and usually her pitch count is at 160 or 170 at the end of games. I know she’s wore out. She’s a tough kid. She works hard, but we definitely haven’t been very good to her as a team.”
