The heart of the Cave Spring softball lineup came alive Friday afternoon at the Knights softball complex.
Batting in the 3-through-5 spots in the lineup, Kylie Kent, Pami White and Cassi Parulis reached base on 11-of-12 opportunities as the Lady Knights overwhelmed the visitors from Christiansburg 12-2 in a game shortened to 5 innings due to the 10-run rule.
White and Parulis each had three hits and a walk during the four innings of batting for Cave Spring, while Kent’s only missed chance to touch the bases came when she hit a sacrifice fly to score White in the fourth inning.
Parulis had the big blow for the Knights in the first inning.
After Alayna Francis singled and Kent doubled to the base of the left field foul pole to score Francis, Christiansburg pitcher Courtney Wright appeared to want no part of White, walking the Colgate signee on four pitches. That brought up Parulis, who made Wright pay the price when she sent a liner over the right field fence for a 3-run homer and 4-1 Cave Spring lead.
Parulis, the typical starter in the circle for the Knights, opened in center field as Abby Beatty started. Beatty was up to the task, allowing only 4 hits over 4 innings of work to pick up the win.
“Since I wasn’t pitching, I could focus on hitting today,” Paruilis, a NYU signee, noted after the game. “i hadn’t been hitting that well, but I thought I was comfortable today. I was sitting on my pitch on the homer, just trying to be aggressive on the pitch.”
Christiansburg had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of first after Jesse Burleson connected on a RBI single that plated leadoff hitter Kelsey Hall who had singled to open the game.
Cave Spring added four runs in the second, aided by singles by Kent and White, along with a double by Kristen Bradshaw.
The Knights made it 9-1 in the third after Kent singled, stole second and scored on a double by White.
Cave Spring plated three more in the fourth on hits by Hailey Sitze and Beatty, Kent’s sacrifice fly and a 2-run single by White.
The Knights went to the bullpen with the 12-1 lead, bringing in JV call-up Brooke Ludy to pitch the fifth. Ludy’s only misstep came on a confused pitch-call that led to Burleson sending a blast well out of the park for a solo homer.
“I used the varsity pitch-call and the JV signal was the opposite,” Cave Spring head coach Nick Sharp admitted afterward. “This was a good win. We started hitting early and kept chipping away. Cassi’s homer got us going. We need to keep hitting the ball hard.”
BIll Turner
