FAIRLEA- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans put together a solid night of softball on Thursday, March 22 when they defeated a good Alleghany Cougars team 12-1 in five innings.
Alleghany came in on a mini two-game winning streak including a 15-1 win over Riverheads (VA) this past Tuesday.
Instead, the Spartans had other ideas and used an 8-run third inning to break the game wide open.
Lily Carola pitched an excellent game for East. She went four innings, allowed just two hits, and struck out 4 Cougar hitters. In the batter’s box, she went 1-2 with a double and 3 RBIs. Hailey Ervin also had a big day and went 3-3 with a double, a run scored, and 2 RBIs.
Alleghany starting pitcher Addyson Neff was pitching well until that third inning where she struggled with control. Ervin led it off with a double, then five consecutive walks led to three Spartan runs. Two straight run-scoring singles followed from Jenna Groves and Aly Martin to make it 10-1, East. Two batters later, Ervin came back up for the second time in the inning and ripped a single that scored Groves, and the Spartans had extended their lead to 11-1 after three.
Carola handed the ball over to Kayla Bartley to close out the fifth and final inning on the mound. Bartley, who played third base until the fifth, pitched for Covington last season and would have been on Alleghany’s roster this year, but instead, elected to be a Spartan. She had a lot of reactions from both sides of the stands in her first at-bat, all in good fun. She ended the day with two runs scored and pitched a perfect inning as well on just seven pitches.
East moves to 4-1 on the young season with a big game coming up on Friday night, March 23 against Woodrow Wilson.
Alleghany falls to 2-2. They will play Rockbridge County next Thursday.
