The Avery softball teams took the diamond with a pair of home games this past week, looking to pick up positive momentum and victories on the scoreboard.Last Tuesday, April 13th, the Lady Vikings played host to neighboring Mitchell in a border battle. In the varsity contest, the two teams played a close affair with the Lady Mountaineers winning by a 7-2 final score.
Mitchell picked up a run in the top of the first inning to take the early 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the frame Avery looked poised to tie or take the lead when Becca Biggerstaff and Justina Rieger each reached base. The players were left on base, however, to keep Mitchell in front.
The Lady Mountaineers sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the second and scored three times to take a 4-0 lead, but pitcher Biggerstaff prevented further damage by inducing a fly out to center field to end the threat.
Avery put runners on base during each of the next three innings, but was not able to produce the big hit to bring the runners to the plate. To help its cause, however, the Lady Vikings prevented Mitchell from scoring in both the third and fourth innings, respectively.
The Lady Mountaineer bats woke up in the top of the fifth inning to the tune of a pair of runs to lead 6-0. Again, however, the Avery defense prevented a bigger inning by getting a huge out to leave two base runners stranded.
In the bottom of the sixth inning the Big Red found its offensive stroke to get on the board. Biggerstaff singled to lead off the frame, and two batters later Rieger earned a walk. Both runners came around to score, cutting Mitchell’s lead to only 6-2.
Mitchell added an insurance run in the top of the 7th to lead 7-2 and Avery was unable to narrow the gap in the bottom of the inning to close out the contest.
“The girls are being patient at the plate and drawing walks, and they’re also playing tighter defense. Becca is also pitching really well for us,” Avery softball head coach Stephen Bunger said following the game. “We just can’t seem to get the timely hits we need to get to bring runners home. That’s pretty much been the story the whole year.”
Eight of Avery’s nine starters reached base safely at least once in the contest, while Justina Rieger got on base after each of her three plate appearances. Kaylea Davis, Biggerstaff, Haley Hicks, and Michelle Cuthberson each reached safely twice in the game.
The junior varsity teams played a high scoring affair that was called after four innings due to darkness. Mitchell seized an early lead but Avery batted around to narrow the margin. Avery’s rally was halted as darkness fell, giving the Lady Mountaineers an 11-7 win.
Mitchell picked up a pair of first inning runs and five more in the second to take a comfortable 7-0 lead. The Lady Vikings put multiple runners on base through the first three innings, but were unable to push across any runs to show for their strong effort.
After Mitchell scored four runs in the top of the fourth to lead 11-0, the Avery comeback began. The Lady Vikings offense exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the fourth inning alone. A total of 13 batters went to the plate for the Big Red during the inning. The bottom seven hitters in the Avery lineup, which included steady bats such as Nikki Wright, Sara Carter, Charley Puckett, and pitcher Brittany Brewer, each scored a run during the rally. Avery brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the inning, but could not get one final clutch hit to completely erase Mitchell’s lead before the game was called.
“We’ve got to learn to avoid the big inning and be able to bring runners home,” Coach Bunger said. “They jumped on us pretty early and we settled in on defense to make plays. It’s a similar story to the varsity game. The bats came alive in that final inning. I think if we had another inning we might have been able to come back all the way to win.”
A number of junior varsity players continue to improve and help the team, according to the coach.
“Nikki Wright has been hitting the ball well with a triple today. Jordan Reep hit well. Kenzie Thomas with her speed is able to do about anything she wants on the bases,” Coach Bunger stated. “Brittany Brewer and Paige Henderson both have been pitching well for us. Charley Puckett has helped the JV a lot with her catching and her bat, and the whole team has been playing more solid.”
On Monday afternoon Avery traveled for a non-conference affair with the Cloudland Lady Landers.
Avery grabbed an early lead as Kaylea Davis tripled and came in to score to put the Big Red ahead 1-0. Cloudland responded with offense off Avery starter Brittany Brewer to take a lead of
Cloudland was able to hold off the Viking rally, scoring a pair of runs in the final innings to hold on for a 10-6 win.
“The varsity played well for the most part. We still need to learn to avoid the one big inning. If it wasn’t for that, it would have been a win for us today,” Coach Stephen Bunger said after the game. “Defensively we played well and settled down after the second inning. We showed a lot of heart and spirit in being able to get ourselves back into the game after falling behind. We just couldn’t seem to quite bring ourselves back all the way.”
Sara DeWitt led the Avery hitting brigade with a pair of base hits.
The junior varsity contest was cut short due to darkness, playing only three innings. The teams decided to use the contest as an exhibition in order to afford all the players an opportunity to bat, with Cloudland outscoring Avery 5 to 2 in the contest.
“Paige Henderson pitched and threw pretty well. She was a bit nervous in the first inning and gave up some walks, but she settled down in the next two innings and kept us in it for the most part,” Coach Bunger said.
Henderson
The Lady Vikings host games this week against
