The early season MO for the Cave Spring Knights softball team has been to struggle early in games and then bombs away in the later innings.
Thursday afternoon at the Cave Spring softball complex, the Franklin County Eagles took the brunt of that script.
Finding themselves behind 1-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Knights found the answer to Eagle starter Hali Saul’s assortment of off-speed deliveries by laying a six spot on the visitors from Rocky Mount.
That was all the cushion Cave Spring starter Taylor Asimakopoulos would need as the defending state champion Knights held on for the 7-3 victory.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Cave Spring head coach Nick Sharp noted after a lengthy post-game team meeting. “We hit some balls early that were right at their defense. I knew if we kept hitting it hard, the hits would start falling. These are good players and it was a good team effort.”
Franklin County scored a run in the second on a pair of drives to center field, and Asimakopoulos avoided further damage in the third when an Eagle drive down the left field line was hauled in with two Franklin County runners aboard.
Cave Spring bats came to life in the fourth.
Abby Beatty got things started with a double to left-center and Kylie Kent followed with a single to put runners at the corners. After Kent moved to second on fielders indifference, Cave Spring catcher Pami White sat on the next offering from Saul and promptly sent it to parts unknown well out of the park. That ignited the Cave Spring hit carousel, with Cassi Parulis, Hailey Sitze, Morgan Leftwitch, Asimakopoulos and Jordan Clifton each collecting singles to cap the six-run uprising.
“I was waiting on it,” White noted with a smile of her blast that was a no-doubter the moment it left the bat. “I had come close the first time up. Just needed to wait longer. My first homer of the year.”
Franklin County got a run in the fifth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but Asimakopoulos struck out the next Eagle batter to end the threat. The Knights added a run in their half of the fifth to make it 7-2, before Franklin County made things interesting in the final frame.
Eagle Logan Barbour opened with a solo homer to left, and Franklin County loaded the bases with one out to bring the potential tying run to the plate. But, Asimakopoulos coaxed a weak popup to the circle and a groundout to short to close the door.
Asked if the last FC threat had her worried, Asimakopoulos said, “Not really. I knew I just needed to settle down.”
Clifton led Cave Spring with three hits while Eagles Jordan Whitcomb matched that total for Franklin County.
Bill Turner