New Richmond – Wyoming East and Bluefield entered the Class AA Region 3, Section 1 tournament as heavy favorites to battle for the sectional title.
Tuesday night in opening round action both teams looked the part.
While Bluefield was blitzing Westside 17-1, Wyoming East was blanking PikeView 13-0. Both games were decided in five innings.
Weather permitting, the two titans will meet Wednesday night in New Richmond for the first time in the double-elimination tournament format.
The recipe for success for the Warriors in the opener was solid hitting, timely plays on defense and freshman Paytin Brehm in the circle.
Pitching her first high school postseason game, Brehm admitted she was not at her best, but she was still good enough to fire a no-hit shutout with nine strikeouts.
“I don’t think I pitched really great tonight,” Brehm said. “There were too many walks and I definitely can’t have that many if we want to beat Bluefield.”
While the nerves were there for Brehm, her teammates did their part to put her at ease right from the get-go.
A one-out walk in the opening frame appeared to be problematic when Olivia Lucas stole second to get into scoring position.
When the throw got away and rolled into centerfield, Lucas broke for third, but Brehm’s older sister had her back.
Savannah Brehm collected the errant throw in short-center and fired a strike to Carli Raye at third base for the second out of the inning.
After Brehm fanned her second batter of the inning, the Warriors came to the plate and went to work with the sticks.
Aided by a throwing error that gave East an extra out, the home team put up five in its first trip to the dish to stake Brehm to a comfortable lead.
A single from Andrea Laxton scored the first run before Alivia Monroe ripped a double down the third base line scoring two more.
Basketball standout Cadee Blackburn did the rest of the damage in the inning with a two-run single for a 5-0 lead.
“It definitely makes me feel a lot better and it makes me feel like the game will be much smoother and a lot less stressful,” Paytin Brehm said about the quick lead.
Blackburn ended with three RBI on the night and along with Haley Adkins and Chloe Prichard, the trio combined to knock in six runs on the night.
“Cadee hit the ball hard three time tonight and we got good production from the bottom of the order,” Wyoming East head coach Robert “Doc” Warner said.
The young freshman walked two batters in the second, but also recorded three strikeouts to keep the Panthers scoreless.
Over the next two innings, the visitors had chances to score, but big plays on defense by the Warriors dashed any hopes of crossing home plate.
In the third inning, a diving snag by catcher Kayley Bane on a bunt attempt ended in an inning ending double-play when she caught the runner at first too far off the bag.
An inning later, a lead-off walk, a throwing error on a pick-off attempt and a wild pitch gave PikeView a runner at third with no outs.
Brehm struckout the next batter before the defense came up big for the second inning in a row.
A fly ball just off the infield was gathered by shortstop Emma Simpson who cut down the runner trying to score for another inning ending double-dip.
Leading 7-0 heading to the bottom half of the fourth inning, East exploded for six runs to bring the run-rule into effect.
“We were a lot more aggressive tonight and more energetic,” Paytin Brehm said. “We work a lot on defense when we don’t have games. We work on a lot of situations like those tonight and I think that really helps us.”
Laxton triple home Savannah Brehm who had led off with a double. Monroe reached on an error to score Laxton before the merry-go-round kicked into high gear.
A single from Raye scored another run in front of Adkins who singled home two more. Bane capped the outburst with a sacrifice fly for the 13-0 lead.
PikeView threatened again in the fifth after Brehm hit the first batter and walked two more to load the bases with one out.
This time it was Brehm who squelched the Panthers with two straight strikeouts to close the game in style.
“If you could have seen us at the beginning of the season, this is a whole different team,” PikeView head coach Steve Compton said. “They have improve immensely and that is probably the best game our pitcher, Madison Dowell, has had all year. We just had some bad luck, but I am really proud of them. This team has worked hard all season and gotten better.”
Westside is scheduled to host PikeView Wednesday in an elimination game. The winner will play the loser between Wyoming East and Bluefield Thursday.
