AFTON — North Greene left Chuckey-Doak with an 8-5 victory on Tuesday, but the Lady Black Knights fought tooth and nail, nearly mounting a late inning comeback.
“Very competitive game,” Chuckey-Doak coach Gene Ward said. “We always have pretty good matches with North Greene. It seems like they’ve been getting the better of us here lately, but we didn’t quit. We tried to put a couple across in the seventh inning, but the girls kept playing hard. And I’m proud of that.”
North Greene jumped to a 5-0 lead by the fourth inning before Chuckey-Doak made it a game with three runs in the bottom. However, the Lady Huskies were able to keep their lead and hold off any potential Lady Knights comeback.
“It was a good win, Chuckey-Doak’s always scrappy,” said North Greene Coach Danny Weems, whose team improved to 5-2. “I thought we played a scrappy game too. We took some extra bases, Heidi Harmon did an excellent job running the bases, allowed us to score some runs with speed.”
“We played the small ball pretty good tonight, too. We bunted really well,” he added. “Bottom of the lineup, they took that on as kind of their role to move baserunners and do things that would be productive from their spots in the order.”
North Greene scored one run in the first inning on a two-out, Haley Bailey RBI single to center field.
In the third, the Lady Huskies added two more to make it 3-0. With a runner on second, Matti Phillips hit a line drive RBI double to center field, followed by a Bailey hard ground ball to center field for an RBI single.
North Greene made it 5-0 in the fourth, utilizing their speed to score. Kaydence Marshall made it to first on a bunt, then stole second base. Destiny Fillers hit a sacrifice bunt to get Marshall to third and Kinslee Sauceman sac bunted to bring Marshall home, 4-0.
Harmon worked a walk and made the Lady Knights pay as she stole second, then third on a wild pitch. Harmon took advantage of another wild pitch to score her team’s fifth run.
Down 5-0, the Lady Knights finally came alive in the bottom of the fourth. After a Hailey Foshie single, Hayleigh Taylor single and Madison Malone walk, the bases were loaded. Kendra Percell worked a walk that drove in the Lady Knights’ first run. With two outs, Rileigh Ritchea hit a two-run single to left field to close the Lady Huskies’ lead to 5-3.
North Greene built its lead with another run in the fifth. Marshall sac bunted to drive home Loren Blevins to make it 6-3. In the sixth, Harmon scored after tagging up on an infield pop fly, beating the throw to home to make it 7-3.
Chuckey-Doak kept it close in the bottom of the sixth, when Saniah Atchison cracked one over the center fielder’s head for a two-run triple to make it 7-5.
“When she hits one in the gap, she’s looking to score,” Ward said with a chuckle. “She can flat-out get it. It’s enjoyable to watch her hit and run because she can get it.”
Blevins added a bit more cushion for North Greene in the seventh with a deep ball RBI double to center field, 8-5.
In the bottom of the seventh, Chuckey-Doak managed to get two runners in scoring position with one out. However, North Greene closer Hannah Brooks ended the game with two straight strikeouts.
Phillips started the game in the circle for North Greene and Brooks closed it out. Phillips pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and three runs (three earned). She walked two and struck out four. Brooks pitched 3 2/3 innings, giving up five hits and two runs (two earned). She walked two and struck out seven.
“I thought we hit the ball pretty good early, especially from the top of the lineup,” Weems said. “Matti pitched real well in the early innings and that allowed us to get the 5-0 lead early in the game.
“Hannah’s pitched real well for us all year,” he added. “Coming into this game, we wanted to pitch them both because we have a few days off here before the Tiny Day Classic. We play Saturday, so we wanted to get both of our pitchers some game work today and we were able to do that and I though they both did a good job.”
At the plate, Bailey was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run. Blevins was 3-for-4 with one RBI, one run and two stolen bases. Phillips and Marshall were both 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Harmon was 1-for-3 with three runs and four stolen bases.
In the circle for Chuckey-Doak, Michelle Silverman and Taylor combined for 12 hits, eight runs (seven earned), two walks and four strikeouts. Silverman opened the game, pitching for 3 2/3 innings, before Taylor came in to relieve her for the remainder of the game.
Atchison finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and Foshie was 2-for-4 with one run. Silverman, Malone and Hailey Williamson had one hit each.
Chuckey-Doak fell to 2-8 on the season.
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