Kaleigh Atchely continued to stand tall on the mound in district play.
Sequoyah’s sophomore ace struck out 15 batters in Monday’s 5-1 District 5-3A win over Lenoir City.
Striking out over half the batters faced, Atchley’s night led the host Lady Chiefs (8-4; 5-0) to their fourth win in a five-game run that has been interrupted by weather delays.
“She is consistent. She has that combination of pitches that work for her. She understands those couple of pitches and is consistent with it,” Sequoyah coach Allen Roberts said, “The talent is there and she throws the ball well. She definitely has a strikeout pitch in her changeup and uses it to set up her rise ball. It gets batters so off-balance.
“She does not walk people and consistently hits her spots.”
Fifteen is Atchley’s season high. She has struck out 64 batters through 42.2 innings — over one-third of batters faced.
Lilly Griffitts and Mysterie Shubert led Sequoyah’s offense with two RBIs each, followed by one from Alicia Kimble. Kimble and Shubert notched two-hit days, both finishing one hit shy of Lenoir City’s total.
Lenoir City threatened to take the lead early disputing the dichotomy in stats. Two two-out walks and a steal placed runners on the corners in the top of the first. Atchley’s second strikeout of the night pulled Sequoyah out of the spot.
The Lady Chiefs offense did not take long to kickstart the turn of the tide.
Atchley reached base on a leadoff walk followed by a single from Kimble before Shubert’s line drive pushed Atchley home.
Griffitts quickly extended the lead in the next at-bat with a hard ground ball to score Shubert and Kimble. The Lady Chiefs were ahead 3-0 with no outs.
Tynleigh Ray singled and pushed Griffitts to third on a Megan Ladd fielder’s choice in an inning that ended quickly after promising production.
“It sets a tone. We had a couple walks but got out of the jam. (Helton) can really hit the ball and we were trying to navigate around her,” Roberts added. “We got back out in the bottom of the first. We just kind of got the momentum going. We hit the ball all night, but we were kind of hitting it at people.
“To jump out — and with the way (Atchley) pitched tonight — we felt really good about that.”
Bella Hall doubled to start the bottom of the fifth before reaching home two batters later off of Kimble’s RBI double. Shubert extended the advantage to five runs in the next at-bat when her single brought home Kimble.
Sequoyah looked to continue the success, but a runner caught stealing and a center field popout ended the frame.
Of the six offensive frames Sequoyah played, the Lady Chiefs led three of them off with baserunners, scoring in two of them. The middle frames — the second through fourth — were limited to nine batters.
Shae Ahlstrom started the sixth inning off with a single, but consecutive popouts recorded three outs in five pitches.
Lenoir City found a run in the sixth inning when its second hit of the night came on a Reagan Helton home run. The Lady Panthers recorded a single after that, but could not cut deeper into Sequoyah’s advantage.
Sequoyah held Lenoir City to, at most, one baserunner per inning after the two first-inning walks. Acthley only walked one batter from the second inning beyond.
Sequoyah still has four district games to play through two and a half weeks — a two-game series with Heritage and single games at Lenoir City and hosting South-Doyle.
“It starts (Tuesday). Neither of us have been beaten in the district so far and they are a solid team with a really good pitcher,” Roberts said. “They are by far the team we have to beat in district play. As we go into this second half, a lot is going to happen this week.
“By the time Saturday is over, the district is going to be pretty set.”
Sequoyah visits Heritage on April 16 before hosting the Lady Mountaineers on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Lady Chiefs travel to Lenoir City on Thursday and visit South-Doyle on April 24.
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