Lady Knights tame Wildcats
Andrews – The Lady Black Knights lit up the scoreboard last week, scoring early and often in Smoky Mountain Conference play against the nearby Lady Wildcats.
All told, Robbinsville (11-2, 5-0) plated 32 runs on 23 hits in the home/away series, ensuring an early finish to both outings April 2 (a 15-0 win at Judy Nichols Memorial Field)and Friday (a 17-0 showing at Valley River Park in Andrews).
The Knights scored in all three innings of Friday’s outpour, with freshman catcher Dreylee Webster posting a team-high four RBI and a double. Liz Carpenter, Sophie Roberts and Suri Watty all roped two-baggers as well, with the latter connecting for three hits in the shortened game.
The combination of Memory Frapp and Naomi Taylor handled business inside the circle, with Frapp improving to 3-0 after striking out four Andrews (0-8, 0-7) batters in two innings of work.
Unbelievably, Robbinsville scored two less runs when hosting the Cats on April 2 – but hit for the team cycle in the win.
Watty and Webster doubled, while Zoie Shuler tripled. A pair of long balls exited the park as well, courtesy of Frapp (her first of the year) and Roberts (her sixth).
In her first varsity start, Presley Caylor earned the win by lasting the entire three innings, surrendering just one hit and striking out five.
Ups and downs
Young Harris, Ga. – To kick off spring break, the Lady Knights and Copper Basin, Tenn., converged onto Young Harris College on Monday, for a game on the Mountain Lions’ home field.
The trip was filled with offensive highlights and defensive lowlights, as Robbinsville came hacking and overcame fielding miscues in a 15-8 win over the Cougars.
Shuler led off the game with a solo homer, before unloading a two-run bomb with one out in the sixth. Aside from the Vols commit running her season total to three, Roberts blasted No. 7 of the year on a three-run dinger in the second.
A breakout performance from freshman Ella Atwell bolstered the victory, as she went 5-for-5, doubling three times and collecting four RBI in the flurry. Atwell entered the game with just five hits in 16 at-bats this year (a .312 average); by doubling her entire output for the season Monday, Atwell lifted her batting average from .312 to .476.
Just before her final RBI, Caylor drove a one-out triple into the right-field corner.
Carpenter, Frapp, Taylor, Watty and Webster also doubled in the game.
Taylor improved her record to 5-1 this season, lasting 3 ⅔ innings and striking out five Copper Basin hopefuls. She endured a rally bid by the Cougars in the second and third, as the host school surged back to knot the contest 5-5 on a pair of deep infield singles off the bats of Taylee Hall and Riley Akens; and cashing in on a passed ball (which scored Akens), an error (plating Maggie Scoggins) and a wild pitch (bringing home Riley Hall).
Robbinsville ensured the junior would be credited with the victory in the fourth, however, with a 4-run segment that gave Taylor some breathing room entering the bottom of the inning.
Caylor would relieve her of duty and submitted 2 ⅓ innings of work inside the circle, before Frapp sealed the deal by stepping in for the final two outs.