Slick baserunning, dominating pitching and responsive defense.
That trifecta typically leads to a long afternoon for even the best of opponents. Just ask the Blacksburg Bruins.
Friday afternoon Cave Spring used a
ll three to take down their River Ridge foe 3-0 to run their season record to 16-1. Blacksburg, themselves, made defensive gems all afternoon to stay close, but the Bruins could never get the toe on the plate for a single score.
“We hit the ball hard all day,” Cave Spring head coach Nick Sharp noted afterward. “Some of them were rockets. Blacksburg made some great catches that kept them in the game.”
Cave Spring’s Taylor Asimakopoulos and Blacksburg pitcher Katie Muscatello were engaged in a battle from the circle through 2 1/2 innings before the Knights opened the scoring in unusual fashion by some slick base running by junior Hailey Sitze.
Sitze opened the Cave Spring third with a single and stole second. With one out, the next Knight batter soared a popup in front of the plate that Bruin catcher Kenley Jones camped under as the Blacksburg corners converged. As Jones made the catch, Sitze tagged and took off for third, drawing a throw from Jones to a base that was defensively void. The perfect throw sailed down the left field line as Sitze scampered across the plate for a 1-0 Cave Spring lead.
Blacksburg looked ready to answer in the top of the fourth when Megan Dicenzo singled and Jones drew a walk to open the inning. But, Asimakopoulos, no stranger to baserunner jams, coaxed a come backer to the circle for a force out at third before fanning the next two Bruin batters.
The Knights tacked on two runs in the Cave Spring fourth. Kylie Kent singled and when Abby Beatty’s shot up the middle was bobbled at second in a fielder’s choice attempt to force the sliding Kent, Cave Spring was in business with runners at first and second
Cassi Parulis then singled to center to score Kent and Cave Spring added a run when Beatty scored on a grounder to short that made it 3-0.
The Bruins threatened in the sixth when Muscatello singled and Dicenzo walked with none out. The uprising was doused when Jones sent a shot destined to the left-center gap that Cave Spring shortstop Kylie Kent gloved and threw a bullet across the infield to double the baserunner at first.
“That was a super-nice play,” Sharp said of Kent’s catch and throw. “We are very good when our defense plays to its potential.”
Parulis talked afterward about her key single that gave the Knights some breathing room.
“I was deep in the count and was looking for anything decent,” she said.
As for the decisive double play in the sixth, Parulis, the Knight’s first baseman added of snaring the low throw from Kent, “Kylie made a great play. I knew I couldn’t let her down.”
Asimakopoulos finished with a four-hitter in picking up the complete game win, striking out nine.
– Bill Turner
