FAIRLEA- It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it was however, one more for the win column.
The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans hosted the James Monroe Lady Mavericks on Tuesday evening–in the Battle of 219 as the Spartan Facebook Page called it– and snuck away with a 12-9 victory.
East had 20 hits in the game, but seven errors from the defense on the chilly, windy day, kept James Monroe right in it until the end.
James Monroe (2-4) went up 2-0 in the top of the first and both runs were scored on two of those errors.
But it didn’t take long for the Lady Spartans to answer quickly, and they did most of the damage with two outs. Ally Martin ripped a double to right field and with two outs and two batters later, Campbell Bundy drew a walk. Ditto for Haylee Heaster. Then, with the bases loaded, Liz Wooding laced a triple to center field that cleared the bases and put Greenbrier East up 3-2. Wooding would score on Jenna Groves base hit and the Spartans led 4-2 after one.
Another Spartan error in the fourth allowed the Mavs to knot the score at 4-all, but pitcher Emily Pyles was able to get out of a bases loaded jam when she got Peyton Street to ground out and end the inning and keep the score tied.
East started the bottom of the second with five straight singles and took a 6-4 lead as Kennah Collins had an RBI in the frame. At that point, East led 6-4 after two innings.
It looked like the Spartans (6-4) were pulling away in the third after a 2-run hit from Reagan Cline and an RBI knock from Martin. That put the scoreboard at 9-4 in East’s favor after three.
However, two Spartan errors in the fifth allowed the Mavericks to keep hope alive. They cut the score to 9-7, but a double play turned by Cline where she caught a fly ball and got the runner leaning off second ended the frame and the Spartans kept a slight 2-run lead.
After tying the game at 9-all in the sixth, the Spartans came back to the plate in the bottom half needing to get something going.
And they did exactly that.
Groves drove in Heaster on a single and the ensuing hitter, Maddie Baker tripled to center and brought Groves home. Cline would then single a couple batters later and the Spartans took their final lead of the game, 12-9.
Collins got the Lady Mavs out in order in the seventh including two strikeouts in the process.
Groves had a huge day on offense and went 4-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Martin was 3-3 with two runs and an RBI. Collins, Heaster, and Wooding all had two hits each and Wooding drove in three as well.
Pyles and Collins combined for eight strikeouts and seven walks.
James Monroe had just six hits in the game.
East is back on Spartan Field on Wednesday, April 9 against Bluefield.
