North Greene hit the road to visit Mosheim and the West Greene Lady Buffaloes on Thursday night and left with a 17-5 victory in six innings.
The Lady Huskies trailed after the first inning, but controlled the final five innings with runs scored in every frame. The bats were hot with twelve total hits and only three combined strikeouts as a team. For head coach Avery Weems, timely hitting could be attributed to the win.
“It was nice to have some timely hits. I think it had been 14 innings since we had scored a run. In both games we had runners on base and some good situations to score and we just hadn’t had timely hits. It felt good to get some big hits today when we needed them,” Weems said.
Loren Blevins and Heidi Trentham delivered three hits each and combined for five RBI’s and four runs. Blevins led the team in hits, runs, and RBIs with three hits, three RBIs, and two runs.
“It was good to see Heidi hit it in stride and really get going hitting. Loren is off to a great start for us this year. Coming into today I think she was hitting over .500, mostly on bunts, but today we had her hit and she had some big hits for us. It was good to see her swing the bat and hit it hard,” Coach Weems expressed.
Matti Phillips took the circle and pitched a complete six innings allowing seven hits, two walks, and only one earned run with four strikeouts. “We didn’t always make plays behind her. We had a couple times where she could’ve let that get to her and I thought she bared down and got through it and made big pitches for us. She’s just a competitor out there and that’s what she does,” Coach Weems bragged.
The Lady Huskies struck first with the first hit and run from Loren Blevins. Her triple led to a run after Phillips grounded out to third. The Lady Buffaloes strung together a few hits to add two runs in the bottom half. Addison Peters and Hayley Arnold strung together back-to-back hits. Peters scored on an error and Autumn Carter drove Arnold to the plate.
West Greene led 2-1 after the first.
Jourdanne Marr walked to begin the second and tied the game on Heidi Trentham’s RBI-single one batter later. Trentham reached home safely on an error committed by West Greene. Kenlea Eastep reached on a single to put runners on the corners. Loren Blevins grounded out, but scored courtesy runner Kennedy Malone in the process to lift North Greene ahead 4-2. Matti Phillips flew out to center, but also delivered a run to score Eastep and make it 5-2.
West Greene loaded the bases with no outs, but only managed to get one run out of it. Abby Cluesman grounded into a fielder’s choice and Morgan Brown scored.
North Greene took over on the scoreboard and assumed a 5-3 lead after two.
A two-spot in the third by the Lady Huskies extended their lead to 7-3. Eastep hit into a sacrifice fly and Marr scored. Trentham raced to the plate on a passed ball to score the other. West Greene’s Morgan Brown hit into an error and scored Alexis Cutshall to add a run and made it 7-4 after the third.
The Lady Huskies stayed consistent and scored two more runs in the fourth. Josie Graham singled and later scored with an assist from Marr. Charlie Turnmire was hit by a pitch and was driven to the plate with Trentham’s RBI-single to right field. Matti Phillips forced three-straight ground outs to keep West Greene scoreless for the first frame all game. They led 9-4 after four.
North Greene ran away with it in the fifth and sixth innings scoring eight runs across both. Blevins delivered an RBI-double that helped Eastep score. Hannah Brooks flew into a sac fly scenario that scored Blevins and an error committed by West Greene on the same play helped Phillips score.
They finished it in the sixth with four runs that began with back-to-back walks from Kennedy Malone and Abby Franklin. Blevins grounded out to third, but hit the ball into play to give Malone the time to sprint home. Franklin scored on a wild pitch and Hannah Brooks scored on a Turnmire single. A walk with the bases loaded scored Graham and Malone’s fielder’s choice scored Madison McClain.
West Greene added their last run through Aubrey Everett. She scored on Miranda Hunter’s ground out.
North Greene finished the game with a 17-5 road win over West Greene. Matti Phillips was credited with the win.
Abby Cluesman pitched for West Greene and pitched five innings allowing 11 hits and 11 earned runs. She walked six and struck out three. Aubrey Everett led them with three hits.
West Greene hosts Unaka on Friday at 5:00 and North Greene hosts Hancock County on Friday at 5:00.
