Wednesday afternoon in the Cave Spring gym, standouts Cassi Parulis and Kylie Kent signed to play softball at the college level.
Later in the day, the two put their signatures on a key Cave Spring win as the Knights blanked visiting Patrick Henry 8-0 in the River Ridge District matchup.
Parulis, who will play next year at New York University, dominated in the circle, holding the Patriot batters to three hits in going the distance to pick up the victory. Kent, who inked with Concord, keyed the Cave Spring offense with three hits and a pair of doubles including a sixth inning shot off the fence in left center that plated two Knight runs.
PH stayed in the game due in part to a gutsy performance in the circle by Stephanie Bowman, who kept the Knights off-balance in the early going with an assortment of off-speed pitches.
“We had to adjust to their pitching and deal with the weather,” Cave Spring head coach Nick Sharp said of Bowman’s delivery and the damp, overcast day that affected the hitting for both teams. “We just kept digging and the hits finally came. I’d definitely like to see it earlier in the game.”
Cave Spring once again got off to a slow start before their bats finally put the game out of reach in the fifth and sixth innings.
“I knew someone was going to get us started,” Kent noted. “We just needed to hit. We’ve got seniors who know what to do.”
Cave Spring got the scoring started in their half of third after Jaz Brickey laid down a perfect bunt single and Abby Beatty singled. Alayna Francis followed with a 2-RBI single that put the Knights up 2-0. Francis had three singles on the afternoon.
That score held until the Knights added a pair of runs in the fifth. Francis singled with one out and Kent doubled down the left field line, putting runners at second and third. Pami White plated Francis with a sacrifice fly to deep center and Parulis helped her own cause with a single to right that scored Kent for a 4-0 Cave Spring lead.
Cave Spring put the game away with a four-run sixth. Singles by Kristen Bradshaw, Beatty and Francis, along with a throwing error, plated one. Kent’s 2-run double followed and White completed the uprising with a RBI single to make it 8-0.
Parulis, in the meantime, was cruising in the circle. She struck out the side in the first, and nine of the 12 PH outs through the first four innings came via strikeouts. Parulis finished with 11 strikeouts for the game. PH did not have a baserunner reach second base until the seventh inning.
“I felt in control,” Parulis said of her stellar performance. “As far as hitting, we’re figuring things out. We just need to start hitting earlier in the game.”
PH’s hits came from Allison Ripple, Rachel Miller and Madison Bonham, anchoring a Patriot program that continues to improve with the aid of strong scheduling.
“We weren’t swinging that well and getting the hits we needed,” PH head coach Andy Neal noted after the game. “But, we’re plugging away and the program is getting better. We seem to have one inning where we give up too many runs, but we have eight seniors and every girl on this team is focused on making Patrick Henry softball better as we move along.”
– Bill Turner
