LITTLE RIVER, SC- The Greenbrier East Lady Spartans are running through teams from the Empire State during their stay in Myrtle Beach during spring break week for Greenbrier County.
After defeating Brockport, NY 11-4 on Monday afternoon, the Lady Spartans hit the field at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, April 15 for a battle with Auburn, NY. And just like the day before, the Spartans got a 7-3 victory.
For such an early start when a lot of people would just be rolling over to hit the snooze button, Greenbrier East was scoring runs. In the bottom of the first following a scoreless top half from Auburn, East’s Reagan Cline, who has hit well lately, started things off with a single and scored on a passed ball. Ally Martin came up next and singled as well and an error on Auburn’s defense put runners on first and third base. Martin then scored on an error and Haylee Heaster followed with an RBI groundout to give East an early 3-0 lead.
And East (10-6) went right back to work in the second.
Liz Wooding singled to lead off. She would then come around score on Jenna Groves’ double and Greenbrier East led 4-0 at that point. The Spartans would add one more to the scoreboard when Martin singled home Groves, and East took a commanding 5-0 lead after two frames.
Auburn got on the board with a run in the third, but in the bottom portion, Martin got the score right back with a triple and scored on a fielding error on the same play for a 6-1 Spartan advantage.
Auburn trimmed the lead to 6-3 in the top of the fifth and looked to be making a comeback, but Emily Pyles, who relieved Kennah Collins, struck out Alyssa Hogle and preserved the lead and got out of a jam.
Campbell Bundy started an insurance inning for the Spartans in the bottom of the fifth with a double to left field. Norah Ambler came in to run and she eventually scored on Wooding’s liner to center that ended the game.
Martin went 3-3 for East with a triple, two runs, and an RBI. Wooding was 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Groves and Heater also drove in runs.
Collins was solid on the mound, but she did walk out eight batters. She allowed just two hits and had three strikeouts. East pitching held Auburn to just two hits.
The Spartans will look to complete the ‘beach sweep’ when they play their final game of the tournament on Wednesday, April 16.
