Early offense leads Lady Knights past Lady Hawks 19-2
The Hiland Lady Hawks struck first and last in their cross-county game versus the West Holmes Lady Knights on Friday, April 8 at West Holmes, scoring single tallies in the first and last innings. In between it was all Lady Knights, with West Holmes rolling to a 19-2 victory.
Hiland’s Grace Keim singled in the first and came around to score on an Annie Troyer single. Then the Lady Knights came in and sent 14 batters to the plate in the first inning to seize control.
Kenzie Woods doubled and stole third, and after Keegan Uhl walked, Avery Yoder cracked a two-run triple to right-center to give West Holmes a 2-1 lead. Felicity Cline got Yoder home on an error, and after Addison Yoder walked, Cline scored on Peyton Carathers’ bunt single. Ally Ogi stroked a run-scoring single through the right side to make it 6-1. Addison Christine reached on a fielder’s choice, and after a Kali Woods groundout, Kenzie Woods walked and Uhl produced a run with a single.
Yoder then came to the plate and delivered her second crushing triple to the right-center gap, plating two more runs. When Cline singled, WHHS was up 10-1.
Hiland never really challenged to score again off starter and winner Madison Clark, but West Holmes had no problem hammering away.
A walk to Carathers and a passed ball, groundout and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Christine made it 11-1. A two-out Hiland error opened the door for three more unearned Lady Knights runs. Kenzie Woods singled. Uhl singled home a run, and after a walk, two more runs came home when Cline’s groundball fielder’s choice was misplayed.
That would be more than enough runs for the Lady Knights.
West Holmes head coach Steve Frank would begin to unload his bench, and the Lady Knights would go on to score two more in the third and three in the fourth inning.
Hiland would touch up Yoder, who came on in the fourth inning, for a single tally in the fifth when Joscelin Varga and Paige Gertz singled, and after Gertz was erased from a grounder off the bat of Keim, Annie Troyer drove home her second run of the game with a single.
Clark would pick up the win, twirling three innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits while striking out three. Yoder tossed the final two frames, giving up a run with three strikeouts. Avery Yoder had a monster game at the dish, raking two triples while driving in four runs. Kenzie Woods added two hits and scored three times while Uhl did the same.
The Lady Knights would follow that win up with a 10-3 loss to Ashland on Tuesday, April 12. The Arrows erupted for four runs in each of the first two innings to blow the game open early. West Holmes collected just three hits, with Uhl singling home two runs and Kali Woods and Clark singling.