Fairlea – After a shutout loss to South Charleston to open the season Greenbrier East has found a groove at the plate.
Wyoming East figured that out early and often Monday evening.
The Spartans pounded 18 hits, plating 17 runs in a 17-10 victory over the Lady Warriors in Fairlea.
Wyoming East came into the game with its own run of success on offense, averaging six runs per game, and the key for the hosts was to neutralize those bats early, something Greenbrier East pitcher Josie Ervin did effectively, working out of an immediate jam.
After allowing the first two batters to reach base, Ervin worked out of bases-loaded hazard by striking out the side.
“She battled through it and worked,” Greenbrier East head coach Aaron Ambler said. “She worked and won a couple of battles there and we got out of it. That’s the way it goes. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. She had some mechanical issues tonight that she worked through.”
Wyoming East pitcher Olivia Hylton wasn’t as fortunate as her counterpart.
Aubrey Glover led off the bottom of the first with a single and later scored when Lindsey Black stroked her own single. A pair of RBIs from Taylor Boswell and Brooke Davis capped a four-run inning for the hosts, though Wyoming East countered in the second.
Nine-hole hitter Maddie Clark got the rally going with a two-out single and Hylton followed with a walk, setting the stage for Paige Laxton who collected two of her five RBIs with a single that scored both Hylton and Clark.
Unfortunately for the Lady Warriors, the hosts picked up where they left off, batting around in the bottom of the second and scoring six runs, highlighted by a two-run dinger from Black.
When the dust cleared the Spartans led 10-2.
“We finally got the bats going there a little bit,” Ambler said. (Hytlon’s) a good pitcher and we saw her three times last year so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but we finally started timing a few up and got some to fall in the gaps.”
In the fourth and fifth innings the Lady Warriors, on the edge of getting mercy-ruled, picked up the pace.
Hylton helped her own cause in the fourth with a one-out single, scoring when Laxton followed with a double. Savannah Brehm kept the rally going with a triple to plate Laxton and scored herself on an error in the next at bat.
That chipped the deficit to 11-6 but the same trio came up big for the Lady Warriors in the fifth.
A leadoff walk by Cadence Clay was later followed by a one-out single from Clark, setting the stage for Hylton. She worked the count, drawing a walk before Laxton blasted her second double of the game to plate two more runs.
Paige Laxton hits one to the gap and it’s 11-8 now. She has 5 RBIs. Brehm at the plate as the tying run here in the top of the 5th. #wvprepsb pic.twitter.com/opEQVWaHxJ
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 21, 2022
Both Hylton and Laxton scored as Brehm, Andrea Laxton and Makayla King drew three consecutive walks, chasing Ervin in the process.
“I thought we did a good job of hanging in the game,” Wyoming East head coach Doc Warner said. “I thought at one time it would be three innings and we’d go home. Then we picked it up and everybody started hitting the ball and walking and we got back in it. We just didn’t pitch very well.”
Laxton and King’s free passes came with the bases loaded, plating a run each but with Clay back at the dish, Brehm was tagged out at third for the final out after a wild pitch was corralled in time.
The inning was a success for the visitors, who cut the deficit to 11-10 heading into the bottom of the fifth but the Spartans had a counterpunch in Olivia Plybon and Lindsey Black.
Plybon worked the count to drive in the Spartans’ 12th run via a walk and Brooke Davis followed a batter later with a single that tacked on two more.
Black drove in run No. 15 in the sixth and a two-run double courtesy of Plybon in that same frame accounted for the final two scores of there game.
Meanwhile the Spartans allowed just three runners to reach on the final two frames – two on errors.
“When (Hylton) got in a groove and got the first pitches in there, she got them out,” Warner said. “When she got behind – they’re a good hitting team that can hit. Every time we walked somebody they got a hit.”
The offensive showing was encouraging for Warner who had to make adjustments to his lineup with starting second baseman Kayley Bane absent due to sickness.
“We missed Kayley Bane,” Warner said. “We had to move the center fielder to second and we had to move the other girl from right to center so we had to change everything around. But we’ll be okay in the end.”
Paige Laxton led Wyoming East going 3 for 4 with two doubles and five RBIs while Black went 3 for 5 with a home run and four RBIs for the Spartans. Taylor Boswell chipped in a perfect 4-for-4 showing for the hosts.
Wyoming East drops to 2-2 and will host Man on Tuesday.
Greenbrier East improves to 2-1 and will travel to Independence on Wednesday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
WE: 021 340 0 – 10 10 3
GE: 461 033 x – 17 18 3
Pitching and Catching – WE: Olivia Hylton and Paige Laxton; GE: Josie Ervin, Lilly Carola and Olivia Plybon. WP: Ervin, LP: Hylton.
Hitting – WE: Hylton 2-3 (2B), P.Laxton 3-4 (2 2B, 5 RBI), S. Brehm 1-4 (3B, RBI), A. Laxton 1-5 (2B, RBI), M. King 0-2 (3 BB, RBI), A.Monroe 1-5 (RBI); GE: A.Glover 4-4, J. Ervin 2-4, L.Black 3-5 (HR, 4 RBI), T. Boswell 4-4 (RBI), O. Plybon 1-3 (3 RBI, 2 B), L.Carola 1-2, B. Davis 2-5 (3 RBI), E. Asbury 1-4 (RBI).
