PRINCETON- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans had it all working in Princeton on Tuesday night, March 19 as they defeated the Tigers 9-0 behind strong pitching from Lily Carola and a solid night at the plate as well.
Carola struck out 12 Tiger hitters and scattered just four hits in arguably her best pitching performance in her Spartan career.
East jumped out to a 4-0 first inning lead after an Alanis McClary double led off the game. A walk to Hailey Ervin and a 2-run base hit from Taylor Boswell put the Spartans up 2-0. Kayla Bartley then stepped up and lined an RBI single to center that scored Boswell and a few batters later, Jenna Groves had a sac fly that scored Bartley and the Spartans had set the tone for the evening.
An RBI groundout from Ervin extended the East lead to 5-0 in the second.
After Carola struck out the Princeton side in the bottom of the second, the Spartans (3-1) came to the plate in the third with more runs on the mind. With one out, Haylee Heaster stepped to the plate and on the very first pitch she saw, she crushed her first career high school home run to center field to give East a 6-0 lead. McClary scored on an error a couple of batters later to make it 7-0 after three.
A Groves RBI single and another RBI hit from Heaster wrapped up the scoring for the Spartans.
Carola struck out the Tigers’ Livi Morgan with the bases loaded to end the game.
McClary was a perfect 3-3 at the plate. She also scored 3 runs. Heaster (2-3, HR, run, 2 RBIs), Boswell (1-3, run, 2 RBIs), and Groves (1-3, 2 RBIs) led the Spartan offense.
Zoey Agnew (2-3) had two of the Tigers four hits.
Emma Johnson suffered the loss on the mound for Princeton (3-1) after throwing 2.1 innings. She gave up 5 hits and 6 runs. She also struck out 4 and walked 6.
East will return home this Thursday evening, March 21 to take on the Alleghany (VA) Cougars. Alleghany is 2-1 so far this season.
