FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans opened their much-anticipated 2024 softball season at home on Friday evening, March 15 against the St. Albans Red Dragons.
After falling behind 2-0, the Spartans used a 4-run fourth inning and got good pitching from starter Lily Carola and from Kayla Bartley who came on in relief for a 4-3 season opening victory.
The Red Dragons went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning when Kiersten Lacy scored on a Spartan error. However, St. Albans momentum they had built was stopped when Hailey Ervin caught a fly ball in right field and then fired it to Bartley, who was on third at the time, for a double play. After one, the Red Dragons led 1-0.
Despite the unearned run in the opening frame, Carola was on cruise control on the mound until the rain came a little harder in the top of the third. The wet ball made it a little tougher on her and she walked the bases loaded. That is when Bartley went to the mound and got out of the inning unscathed when she retired the next three batters on a fly out, fielder’s choice, and another fly out to Spartan centerfielder Gracie Gumm.
The Spartans still struggled to hit St. Albans pitcher Ava Bentley up to that point as Bentley shook off a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third to strike out the remaining side of Spartans.
St. Albans then put run number two on the board in the top of the fourth on another Spartan error and things started to look a little bleak for East. But three consecutive strikeouts from Bartley swung the momentum back to the East dugout and the offense took advantage.
Ervin led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple and then scored immediately on a passed ball. Taylor Boswell’s base hit kept the inning going and five batters later, after a couple walks and with two outs, Aly Martin laced a single to center that brought Boswell across home plate and Haley Byars, who was running for Bartley, scored as well, and the Spartans led 3-2. Carola then stole home on the next at-bat as East led 4-2 after four.
A solo home run from the Red Dragons’ Sydney Young brought the score to 4-3 in the fifth. Fast forward to the top of the seventh and St. Albans loaded the bases with nobody out that included an intentional walk to Young. However, Bartley settled in and struck out the next two Red Dragon batters. She then got Aly Long to fly out to Ervin in right field and the Spartans hung on and survived for a key early season victory.
East had just three hits from Ervin, Boswell, and Martin. Martin also had 2 RBIs.
Carola went two innings on the mound with 2 strikeouts. Bartley pitched five innings, allowed just 1 hit, 2 runs (1 earned) and had 8 strikeouts.
Bentley had a nice outing on the mound for St. Albans. She had 15 strikeouts in six innings.
East returns to action on Saturday afternoon with a double-header against Logan.
