BECKLEY- After a tough senior night loss to James Monroe on Wednesday, the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans redeemed themselves on Thursday evening with a gritty 4-1 victory over the Woodrow Wilson Lady Flying Eagles.
East (15-9) tagged Eagles pitcher Aubrey Smallwood, who has an astonishing 712 strikeouts in her career, for 10 hits and three earned runs. Smallwood did, however, have 16 punch outs.
The game stayed scoreless for the first two innings as East starter Kennah Collins was also pitching well and keeping Beckley off the basepaths.
But both teams scored in each half of the third. The Spartans got a double from Reagan Cline, a single from Maddie Baker, and eventually Cline scored on a wild pitch. That put Greenbrier East up 1-0.
But the Eagles answered. Smallwood hit a sac fly to center that scored Hadley Reott who had walked earlier in the inning. That tied the game at 1-all after three frames.
That score remained the same until the top of the sixth when East put a little rally together. Jenna Groves lined a one-out single to right field and two batters later, Cline singled Groves to second base. Then, senior Ally Martin came up with the biggest hit of the night when she ripped a 2-run double for a 3-1 Lady Spartan lead.
The Eagles threatened in the bottom of that inning and even loaded the bases via two walks and a hit-by-pitch. But Madilyn Wellman replaced Collins–who was very good– and she struck out two consecutive hitters to not only end the inning, but the threat as well.
Collins added an important insurance run in the seventh when she got Haylee Heaster home on a sac fly.
Wellman got through the seventh unscathed after the first two hitters reached base, and East iced win number 15 on the year.
Cline (2-3, 2 runs) and Groves (2-4, run) led the Spartans offense. Martin’s two RBIs led the team.
Collins pitched 5.1 innings, allowed just four hits, and struck out two. Wellman had three strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work.
Woodrow (11-13) had just four total hits in the game.
The Spartans are scheduled to play Independence this Saturday at home for their final regular season game of 2025. After that, postseason play will begin next week.
