Gallery by Heather Belcher
Coal City – It’s been a rough start for Beckley which sported a 3-3 record with a two-game skid coming into Tuesday’s matchup with Class AA Independence.
Even more daunting was the proposition of facing Indy’s all-state pitcher Delaney Buckland who’s been stellar to start the season.
But Beckley’s own all-state ace Aubrey Smallwood had no problem answering the call.
Smallwood fanned 18 batters and notched two hits, leading the Flying Eagles to a 4-2 victory on a sprkinly 45-degree evening in Coal City.
The matchup between two of the best hurlers in the state didn’t disappoint with Smallwood taking it upon herself to deliver one of her best performances of the season.
“It’s definitely been rough and we knew coming in it was probably going to be a rebuilding year,” Smallwood said. “We’re a very young team but I feel like there’s a lot of motivation out here with certain girls and teammates and they play a big factor in our team and our wins.”
The Flying Eagles’ No. 2 through 4 hitters – Natalia Meade, Smallwood and Brooklyn Bird – were all seemingly motivated Tuesday.
Against Buckland, who struck out 12, the Beckley trio put the ball in play in their first at-bats with Smallwood smacking a single to the wall.
It was a sign of what was to come with a Smallwood double setting the table in the fourth inning for Bird who swatted a double of her own to draw first blood.
A double-steal drew an errant throw that sailed into centerfield field, allowing Bird to score and giving Beckley a 2-0 advantage.
“We’ve faced Delaney in the past and came in here with three starters from last year,” Smallwood said. “We just kind of knew coming in it was going to be hard to hit her. We knew how good her movement and placement are. We just had to take advantage of what she gave us.”
Meade resumed the assault in the sixth inning, taking Buckland over the fence with a home run to extend the lead to 3-0 in the sixth. Bird followed by reaching on a one-out error, advanced to third after a walk and wild pitch and scored on Alexis Smith’s sac fly.
Meanwhile the Indy offense struggled to put pressure on Smallwood through five innings, mustering just three base runners with none advancing past second base.
“My curveball was on today,” Smallwood said. “That’s my No. 1 pitch. It’s usually my rise ball but here recently I’ve been going with a low rise and I can get a couple with my rise but my curveball was eating it up today.”
Buckland eventually took matters into her own hands in the box, sparking a rally attempt in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff single. Her courtesy runner eventually scored on a one-out Emma Lilly RBI single. Kendall Martin, who doubled earlier in the game, cut the deficit in half with a hard single that plated Lilly when the Flying Eagles missed the cutoff man.
As a result Martin moved up to second but Smallwood retired the next five batters in order to preserve the win for the Flying Eagles.
It was an uncharacteristic outing for Buckland who was 5-0 with 56 strikeouts coming into the game, though Independence head coach Ken Adkins shared some of the blame.
“We switched up on that,” Independence head coach Ken Adkins said. “We always beat up on them throwing the ball away. Well they beat us last year on a pitch away. They knew that was coming, practiced for it and were ready for it. We did it again today and they hit a couple balls hard. As soon as we switched up and went away from that they struggled to hit the ball in. Part of that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job and some of that is you think you know. It’s a chess game. I set myself up where I think I’m good and I’ve got all kinds of notes. But they were smart and they know what you did last time.”
Smallwood, a sophomore, moved to 2-1 in her career against Indy with 48 strikeouts in 20 innings, having allowed just four earned runs in those three outings combined. Her latest gem came after having her wisdom teeth removed and having not pitched since last Tuesday in a brief relief appearance against Oak Hill.
“We just are not confident,” Adkins said. “That’s the first really good pitcher we’ve seen. The girl from Wyoming East (Paytin Brehm) is good but not like she is. And I told them if we want to go where we want to go, we’ve got to be able to hit that. And we showed – we did this last year where we wait too long and you don’t have enough time to put pressure on anybody. (Smallwood) isn’t leading the state in strikeouts because she’s a flop. It’s for a good reason.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
