New Richmond – In a matchup of teams trending in different directions the usual culprits decided the outcome on both sides.
Beckley freshman Aubrey Smallwood struck out 16 batters and senior teammate Kayla Bird drove in a pair of runs to provide her pitcher all of the support she’d need as the Flying Eagles hushed Wyoming East’s bats in a 4-0 victory Monday in New Richmond.
In a game that was a pitcher’s duel through four innings, East’s defense, which committed 13 errors in three games over the weekend, added six more against Beckley Monday with all four of the Flying Eagles’ runs coming directly from fielding miscues.
“Every game we’ve played we’ve had one or two bad innings,” East head coach Doc Warner said. “We can’t catch nothing. Instead of wanting the ball to come to them they say ‘Oh please go over there! Please go over there!’ instead of being happy and getting an out. They want it to go somewhere else.”
The errors proved fatal on a cool night where Smallwood was at her best.
After a walk and an error in the bottom of the first inning allowed an East runner to reach third, the freshman hurler kept the run 90 feet away, striking out the next two batters.
That was the trend of the first four innings with Smallwood retiring 10 of 11 batters from the first inning to the end of the fourth inning via strikeout.
“I like to work between my riseball and my curveball,” Smallwood said. “I think it was working real well tonight and those are some good hitters out there. I just had to have those corners. I can’t throw meat pitches or I’m going to pay for it.”
With both pitchers rolling – Smallwood’s counterpart Olivia Hylton worked around a pair of errors and allowed just one hit in the first four innings – it came down to which team behind the hurlers would blink first.
It was East.
Errors at third and second base allowed the nine-hole and leadoff hitters to reach for Beckley to open the fifth. Smallwood followed with a single but a forceout at the pate after an Ava Mullins tapper back to Hylton kept the Flying Eagles off the board… momentarily.
Bird, who came into the game with five home runs, kept the ball in the park but still did damage from the cleanup spot, lining a single up the middle that scored Natalia Meade and Smallwood.
“Kayla, she’s my senior that’s going to be leaving me this year and she’s hit like five home runs this year so far,” Beckley coach Pam Davis said. “I’m hoping she’d hit another one tonight but she got two RBIs and got us started so I’m just really happy with our hitting.”
A 1-5 forceout and a single from Jayden Shrewsbury kept the charge alive but a strikeout limited the damage to two runs.
It was all Smallwood needed, yielding just two hits on the evening.
She was especially efficient against East standouts Olivia Hylton and Paige Laxton, who entered the game with four and seven home runs, respectively, in 13 games.
Smallwood held them to a combined 0-for-5 showing with four strikeouts and a walk.
“My changeup has come a long ways,” Smallwood said. “I didn’t have one last year and I just started working it because I knew I was coming into high school facing the good hitters like Paige Laxton and Olivia (Hylton) and I knew I had to have something or I was going to get rocked. I did my research before coming in here and I knew Paige hit six home runs and that’s pretty impressive. I knew I was going to have to keep it away from the strike zone with her.”
A pair of two-out errors in the top of the seventh and a wild pitch accounted for the final two runs.
East attempted to rally in the bottom of the frame when Kayley Bane hit a leadoff single but she was erased on a fielder’s choice. A dropped third strike allowed Maddie Clark to reach but fittingly, Smallwood concluded the evening with her 16th strikeout to move Beckley to 9-2.
“She’s got confidence,” David said of Smallwood. “That’s what I really love about her. She’s got confidence and she’s just throwing well. The team’s backing her up by hitting the ball and that’s what we’re going to start dong and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve got a good hitting team – young for the most part but I’m very happy.”
East drops to 7-7, extending its losing streak to four games.
Beckley improves to 9-2 and will face another difficult task when it hosts Shady Spring on Tuesday.
Pitching and Catching – B: Aubrey Smallwood and Taylor McDaniels; WE: Olivia Hylton and Paige Laxton. WP: Smallwood, LP: Hylton.
Hitting – B: Natalia Meade 2-4, Aubrey Smallwood 1-4, Kayla Bird 1-2 (2 RBI, 2 BB), Jayden Shrewsbury 2-4; WE: Alivia Monroe 1-3, Kayley Bane 1-3.
