Gallery by Greg Barnett
Bluefield – Through six innings Wyoming East had stranded 10 runners on base, twice leaving them loaded.
Down to their final out and trailing 5-4, the Lady Warriors erased an evening of frustrations due to missed opportunities.
East catcher Kayley Bane belted a bases-loaded double in the top of the seventh, driving in three runs to help East secure an 8-5 win over sectional foe Bluefield in Bluefield Monday evening.
Bane, sporting a team-best .571 batting average heading into the contest, stepped into the box with an 0 for 3 line, reaching base just once in the game after she was hit by a pitch.
But relishing the spotlight, she delivered when it mattered.
“I knew I was struggling the whole game,” Bane said. “Whenever I got up to bat and I saw the bases were loaded and that’s my type of atmosphere because I have the confidence. I hit a grand slam at Princeton and I hit another home run with two on against Westside. I love that atmosphere. It’s crunch time and I walked up to the plate full of confidence that I knew I could hit.”
East loads the bases for Kayley Bane who clears them with a double to give the Lady Warriors a 7-5 lead. Savannah Brehm follows with an RBI single and WE leads 8-5.#wvprepsb pic.twitter.com/xSHmc6SSvW
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 28, 2023
While Bane’s contributions were the highlight of the night, fellow seniors Chloe Prichard, Savannah Brehm and Andrea Laxton kept East afloat throughout the evening when their younger teammates struggled.
Brehm and Laxton drove in two runs each while Prichard reached base three times with a pair of bunt singles and a walk.
Those performances led the way for a team that rosters 12 players, six of which are freshmen.
But without those freshmen East’s rally would’ve been squashed before the senior heavy-hitters had a chance to drive in the winning runs.
Freshman Carli Raye ignited the comeback with a one-out single in the seventh before Prichard executed another bunt for a single. Freshman Emma Simpson smacked her own single with two outs, bringing Bane to the plate. Her double zoomed over the head of the centerfielder, landing at the base of the wall, giving East a 7-5 advantage. Brehm followed with her second RBI single of the evening for an insurance run and facing the ninth batter of the frame, Bluefield pitcher Isabella Smith finally found her way out of the inning but the damage was done.
It was an unfortunate change of fate for the junior hurler who allowed the first five batters of the third inning to reach base, escaping that jam by limiting the damage to two runs. She followed that by stranding the bases loaded in the fifth, allowing just one run in a frame where four different batters reached base.
“I would say there was a little fatigue because we were at the end of our second game today,” Bluefield head coach Barry Reed said. “That’s probably not a good excuse, but if you play cards sooner or later the cards are going to fall your way and I think it fell their way in the seventh. We’ve had trouble with (Prichard) the last two years. She created a couple hits and played the short game a little bit. My pitcher pitched good overall, but we walked too many people and two or three of those runs scored and that makes a difference and we can’t do that, not in these kind of games. But this is new territory for us because we feel like we’re right there with them. We’ve just got to take that next step forward.”
To Reed’s credit there was much to be confident about early.
After Laxton scored Brehm on a two-out single in the first, the Beavers put the ball in play, collecting a pair of two-out hits and capitalizing on a pair of two-out errors to plate three in the bottom of the first.
East countered in the third when Brehm and Laxton drove in a pair of runs – Brehm’s on a single and Laxton’s on a bases loaded walk to knot the game at three. The advantage was short-lived as Maddie Lawson blasted a solo home run to open the bottom of the frame.
Raye’s RBI single in the top of the fifth provided the second tie of the evening but the Beavers were swift to answer again when an errant throw to first in the bottom of the frame with a runner on sailed over the first-baseman’s head, allowing Taylor Mabry to score and give the Beavers a 5-4 lead.
That advantage held until the seventh-inning explosion.
“We were worried about the lineup,” East head coach Doc Warner said of the seventh inning. “We had six and seven up in the order but I said if either got on we’d win. Seven got a hit and I knew if we got to the top of the order we’d be okay. We got to Bane and she was due. She’s been hitting the ball but she popped up earlier in the game. We’re young and we’ve got four seniors who have to do everything every time. We grew up some though. Carli Raye hit well and Chloe bunted the ball good. (Prichard) really was the MVP.”
The win, a rematch of the last two sectional championships, gives Wyoming East an early leg up on postseason seeding.
“It was huge for us,” Warner said. “It helps us play the postseason at home and we’re pretty tough to beat at home.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on twitter @tjack94
