SOUTH CHARLESTON- Following a tough state tournament opening loss to Sherman, the Greenbrier West Lady Cavaliers rebounded nicely on Thursday afternoon with a thrilling 6-5 win over Ritchie County at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
The weather broke just long enough for Greenbrier West to stay on the field after playing through three rain delays on Wednesday night.
West took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Emma Edens hit a 2-run single that scored Kaelyn Bevins and Gracie Rhodes.
That score stayed put until the bottom half of the fourth when the Lady Rebels finally broke through on Cavalier star pitcher Brilee Redden. Cassie Hardbarger slapped an RBI double and Abby Cox followed that with an RBI single and the Rebels knotted the score at 2-2.
But what Ritchie could do, Greenbrier West could do too.
The Lady Cavs answered with two more runs in the top of the fifth when Brooklyn Adkins scored on a base hit from Bevins. Two batters later, Jenna Hunter ripped a base hit and during a series of throws, Ellie Deitz crossed home plate for a 4-2 Greenbrier West lead.
That lead would extend to 6-2 in the sixth and from that point forward, Greenbrier West had to play survival mode.
With the lead down to 6-5 and with two outs in the final inning, Ritchie County had a baserunner on third looking to tie the contest. But Redden got Emily Bush to ground out to Diana Porter at third in which Porter made a nice play to throw over and make the final out of the day.
Redden went 3-4 with a triple at the plate and struck out seven in the circle, where she also allowed just two earned runs. Hunter and Bevins each went 2-4 and Edens knocked in two runs.
Wahama is up next for Greenbrier West later on Thursday.
