The Walker Valley Lady Mustangs are off to one of their best starts ever in softball and that success continued on the road Wednesday afternoon with a 5-4 victory at East Hamilton.
The Lady Mustangs, improving to 10-1 overall, scored two runs in the third and three more in the fourth and that was more than enough support for junior righty Ryann Presswood, who went the distance for the win.
Walker Valley coach Lauren Limburg is just thrilled that her girls are playing great softball this early in the season and the veteran coach can’t remember the last time her team got off to such a solid start.
“We got down early, but we just kept fighting back and that’s what I love about these girls. It was a back and forth game, but we just beat a really good East Hamilton team as we finally got things together.
“I thought Boogs (Presswood) pitched a great game, but I’m so proud of how well we’re playing right now. We always want to play the best teams we can as that only helps us get better for tougher games down the road, but we just have to keep working to keep getting better,” Limburg concluded with a smile.
Take away those two middle innings and the Lady Hurricanes were right in the middle of the fight. Senior right-hander Ashlynn Watkins was a tough-luck loser, but she pitched well enough to win after allowing those five runs on seven hits. She also had six strikeouts and four walks.
East Hamilton coach Norma Nelson knew that her team was facing a really good Walker Valley team. She also knows that they played toe-to-toe with those girls from Cleveland and were within striking distance of possibly coming back for a big win.
“We had our chances and that’s all I wanted, but take away those two innings and it’s a different story,” Nelson said after her team dropped to 1-2 overall.
“I’m pleased with how Ashlynn bounced back after those two bad innings as she only allowed seven hits and probably pitched well enough to win, but we know what we need to work on and we’ll keep getting better,” Nelson nodded.
East Hamilton took the early lead when Faith Wadley raced to third on a Walker Valley throwing error. Henley Apps followed with a single to drive her in for an early 1-0 advantage.
Watkins retired the first six hitters she faced before Brylie Davis led off the third with an infield single. Watkins then retired the next two hitters and looked like she might escape further trouble before Karly Blackwell and Amy Benson ripped back-to-back RBI singles to put Walker Valley up 2-1.
Bailey Poschke led off the East Hamilton third with a double and went to third on a single by Wadley before tying the game on another RBI-single from Apps.
East Hamilton had runners on base in every inning and left at least one runner stranded in all seven, but Presswood did a great job of making key pitches at critical moments to prevent the Lady Hurricanes from having bigger innings.
Walker Valley then took the lead with three runs in the fourth with only one hit. The first run scored on East Hamilton’s second error of the inning while the last two scored on bases loaded walks.
The Lady Canes kept chipping away and made things interesting with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
Watkins got a walk with one out in the seventh, but East Hamilton left Watkins on first as Presswood struck out Yulai Woodruff for the second out before getting Madeline Evans on a liner to first to end the game.
Evans was the leader for East Hamilton with three hits, including a leadoff double in the sixth. Wadley and Apps both had two hits while Alana Johnson drove in the last run in the sixth after Watkins had driven in the third with a single in the fifth.
Addison Woodall and Benson both had two hits for Walker Valley with Benson also driving in a pair.
East Hamilton returns to action with a home game on Thursday against Cleveland while Walker Valley will be at home on Monday to face Clinton in its next game.
WALKER VALLEY 002 300 0 – 5 7 2
EAST HAMILTON 101 011 0 – 4 10 3
Presswood and Oran; Watkins and Poschke.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)