|
Arcanum
pitcher Erija Nealeigh delivers a pitch for the Trojans Tuesday
at Bradford. Nealeigh pitched eight strong
innings, allowing five hits
and one walk and five strikeouts as the Trojans beat Bradford 3-0 in
eight innings.
|
|
Pitching proves
huge in Arcanum win
Trojans win in extra innings
By George Starks
BRADFORD- The Arcanum Lady Trojans went to 5-0 on the season Tuesday
and was forced to play an extra inning to do it before pulling out a
3-0 Cross County Conference thriller.
While outstanding pitching, excellent defense and hard hit balls were
the order of the day, it took a check swing squib to set things in
motion.
Through seven innings, neither Arcanum nor Bradford could dent the
plate with a run. Then came the top of the eighth and the moment
Trojans coach Rick Stone had been waiting on.
A mistake by Bradford.
With two on and one out, MacKayla Slade stepped to the plate.
On the first pitch delivered by Bradford’s Alysha Patty, Slade was
forced to fight the high and inside pitch off with a check swing.
With Josie Weaver standing at third, Stone sent the runner the second
the ball was in play.
The throw to the plate was not in time and the Trojans were on the
board.
“We were playing a great team in Bradford tonight. They are for real,”
said Stone. “Defensively, they made some outstanding plays on us. We
hit the ball hard the whole game and sometimes, a little dribbler is
all you need to set the wheels in motion. Tonight, a little dinker was
all it took to make things happen.”
Making it happen is exactly what happened as Bradford could not get
control of the ball and the dribbler also scored Cheyenne Aikman from
second.
“I told the girls that the outcome of this game would be determined by
who made the biggest mistake first,” Stone said. “Fortunately, it was
them but this game could have gone either way and my hats off to them.
They played a heck of a game.”
Allowing just five hits and striking out five, Erija Nealeigh pitched
an outstanding game for Arcanum.
“She has been solid all year long,” admitted Stone. “She’s a warrior.
Everyday she wants to pitch and she never wants to give the ball up.”
In the field, the Trojans were solid despite two errors.
“I told the kids before the start of the season that good defense can
win ball games,” said Stone. “We made a couple of mistakes but over
all, it was a great team win.”
From top to bottom on offense, Stone has a solid line-up.
Arcanum struck for seven hits against Patty, with one of those coming
from the eighth hitter, a double by Haley Morris, scoring Emily Kolling
for the third run of the night…
“We are solid,” said Stone. “On any given night, the person who has the
hot hand can be hitting anywhere on this team, lead-off or ninth. When
we hit the ball hard and put it in play, good things can and will
happen and tonight was the case. We put the ball in play, even though
it didn’t seem like much, big things happened, Bradford is the best
defensive team we’ve played so far so again. My hat’s off to them.”
Coming off big wins over Troy and a double-header sweep of Marion
Local, Bradford entered with a 4-0 record with Bradford’s first victory
of the season coming over New Bremen.
“It was a tough game to lose,” said Bradford coach Eric McDaniels.
“Take nothing away from either one of these teams. This was a battle.”
In other games from around the county Tuesday:
Softball
Greenville 10, Vandalia 1
Russia 12, Versailles 6
Baseball
Greenville 1, Vandalia 19
Ansonia 1, Covington 2
T-V 2, Miami East 5
Versailles 6, Russia 1
|
|
Arcanum
junior Allison Dill gets out of the way of a pitch delivered by
Bradford’s Alysha Patty.
|
|
|
|
