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Lady Lions celebrate Senior Night with 8-2 win over Bath County
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:36 PM EDT
Junior right-hander Amanda Gilbert recovered from a shaky start to send the four seniors out in style. After allowing a pair of runs on four Lady Cat hits on the opening inning, Gilbert blanked the visitors on three hits over the next six innings.
"They have a lot of left-handed hitters and Amanda's struggled with her control at times against lefties," said Lewis County coach Jimmy Lykins. "She very seldom walks anyone and she came back and did a solid job after the first inning. We've really been blessed to have her pitching for us."
Bath County's Kara Collins and Brittany Norton both reached on singles in the first inning and later scored the only Lady Cats runs of the game on base hits from Suzanne Hawkins and Chelsey McDermott.
Lewis County answered with a single run in its half of the first. Junior shortstop Jessi Marth reached on an error by center fielder Amy Walters and scored on a groundout by Whitley Mason, one of the Lewis County senior quartet.
Lewis County went in front with two runs in the third before extending its advantage with the big fourth inning. With two outs, Marth reached on a bunt single, stole second and scored on a hit from Mason. Mason scored the go-ahead run after moving to second on a single to center field from Molly Caskey, advancing to third on a wild pitch, and sliding into home plate on a passed ball.
A pair of Lewis County seniors played key roles in the fourth inning, when the home team sent 10 batters to the plate against Norton. Amber Clark led off with a double to left-center field, and following a groundout, Norton walked Kayla Polley.
The seniors then stepped up.
Second baseman Lacey Wright lined a single to center field to score the first run of the inning, and third baseman Kristin Reis singled up the middle to drive in a pair. Marth doubled to deep center and Caskey singled to score the final two runs of the inning.
After the seniors, Tiffany Bradford, Mason, Reis and Wright, were honored in postgame ceremonies, Lykins reflected on what they have meant to the program.
"They are all 3.5 or better students and they are also excellent people off the field," said Lykins. "They have been a lot of fun to be around, and I've enjoyed coaching them. It was great to see Lacey and Kristin both get big, back-to-back RBI hits in that fourth inning. Whitley has been a mainstay of the program and is a solid player. Tiffany has been hitting the ball better lately and has been a big part of our success."
Lykins is looking forward to next week's district tournament, when the Lady Lions will face Greenup County in the opening round.
"I have confidence that the girls will rise to the occasion and we will be dangerous if we keep hitting the ball the way we have recently," said the coach. "We play better against the better teams and it was good to see us hit a lot of line shots today."
Lewis County (9-8) will travel to Boyd County on Thursday in their next scheduled game.
Bath Co. 200 000 0 2 7 1
Lewis Co. 102 500 X 8 10 1
WP -- Gilbert. LP -- Norton. BC: (Collins 1-2, R; Norton 3-4, 2B, R; Hawkins 1-4, RBI; McDermott 1-3, RBI), LC: (Marth 2-4, 2B, 3R, RBI; Mason 1-4, R, 2RBI; Caskey 3-3, RBI; Liles 1-3, Clark 1-3, 2B, R; Wright 1-3, R, RBI; Reis 1-3, R, 2RBI). Records: Bath County 7-12, Lewis County 9-8.
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