The West Greene softball team looked to be cruising on Thursday evening, but Chuckey-Doak found new life in the fourth inning and surged past the Lady Buffaloes for a 10-8 win.
Chuckey-Doak coach Tim Armstrong said “We needed a good inning, we’ve been playing some games where we taper off. When we’re not hitting, we work on bunting. You can see it and we practiced yesterday on that. We put up three runs in one inning and then we put up seven runs, that fired us up and we were ready to play some ball.”
After Abby Cluesman sat the Lady Knights down in order in the top of the first inning, the Lady Buffs took the early lead. Addison Peters singled off the bag at third, Aubree Everett reached on an error and Cluesman brought both into score with a hard-hit single just inside the bag at third for a 2-0 lead..
Cluesman got the Lady Knights in three up and three down fashion again in the top of the second inning. In the bottom of the side Miranda Hunter drew a walk from Elizabeth Manuel and scored on a single from Everett to extend the lead for the Lady Buffaloes to 3-0.
The Lady Buffs added to their lead with a run in the bottom half of the third inning when Cluesman hit a bloop single. She stole second base and scored on an RBI single from Victoria Ramsey and a 4-0 lead after three innings.
The fourth inning saw the Lady Knights finally show signs of life when Haleigh Seidl reach on an error. Seidl stole second and Jayden Myers got the first hit of the game for the Lady Knights, a solid single up the middle that scored Seidl.
Myers stole second, went to third on a passed ball and then scored on Madisyn Miller’s groundout. Paylin Shelton walked and went to second base on a passed ball. With Elizabeth Shelton at the plate Paylin Shelton was running on the play and was able to score from second on an infield single to cut the Lady Buffs’ lead to 4-3.
After the Lady Buffs were unable to score in the bottom of the fourth the Lady Knights erupted for seven runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Ariel Mitchell singled to right field, Manuel walked and Seidl singled to load the bases for Myers. Myers doubled to right field over everyone’s head scoring Mitchell and Manuel and ending Cluesman evening inside the circle.
Abigale Jackson came on to pitch for the Lady Buffalos and was greeted with another two run double by Miller that scored Seidl and Myers. Miller would take third on a wild pitch, then to add insult to injury the Lady Knights worked the safety squeeze to perfection as Hayden Kenney laid down a near perfect bunt to score Miller. Liberty Sauceman doubled high off the fence in left field to score Kenney for a 10-4 advantage.
West Greene was able to add two run in the sixth inning. Peters reached on an error and Everett singled to center field. Peters scored on a RBI double by Alexis Cutshall and Everett scored on a sacrifice fly by Amanda Owens. The Lady Knights were unable to score in the top of the seventh but took a 10-6 lead into bottom half.
The final frame started off right for the Lady Buffs when Autumn Carter beat out an infield single and Hunter walked. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Peters drilled a come-backer that Manuel somehow managed to field and throw out Peters at first, but Carter scored on the play. Everett grounded out to second and Hunter scored. With two outs Cutshall walked and the tying run was at the plate, but Owens grounded out to first to end the game 10-8 in favor of the visiting Lady Black Knights.
Ramsey had three hits to lead the Lady Buffs while Cluesman and Everett had two hits and two RBI’s each.
For the Lady Knights, Myers and Miller both had two hits and three RBI’s to lead the offense attack. Manuel went the distance to pick up the win.
