Cloudland sinks Lady Bucs in 5-0 shutout

Published 8:24 am Wednesday, April 24, 2019

The Cloudland Lady Highlander softball team may be one of those teams that other teams in the Watauga Valley Conference stand up and take notice of heading into the home stretch of the regular season and the upcoming district tournament.

Especially after the way the Lady ‘Landers took care of business early on Monday in Roan Mountain against the visiting University High Lady Bucs as Coach Matt Birchfield’s team jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after two innings of softball and then turned the rest over to pitcher Kenzie Birchfield.

The Lady Bucs couldn’t figure Birchfield out and the result was a 5-0 Cloudland win.

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Cloudland plated four runs in the bottom of the first inning to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Back-to-back singles from Karah Fields and Heaven Caraway put Lady ‘Landers at first and second base to start the inning.

Jasmine Birchfield stroked a single that plated Fields to make it 1-0 Cloudland.

Krisi Bare was clutch in her at-bat as she roped a ball over the right fielder’s head and came hustling around the base path on the heels of Caraway and Birchfield to make it 4-0 at the end of the first inning of play.

After Kenzie Birchfield set the Lady Bucs down on strikeouts to end the top of the second, Cloudland’s Jasmine Birchfield reached first on an infield pop fly for a single.

With one out, Fields laced a single that chased Birchfield home and was erased trying to stretch the single into a double on the play.

It wouldn’t matter, however, as the Lady Highlanders owned the rest of the contest as Kenzie Birchfield imposed her will on the Lady Bucs by totaling 14 strikeouts in the game and allowing only three hits in her seven innings of work. She walked two.

UH’s Avery Kibelback allowed the five runs from the pitching circle serving up seven hits to the Lady ‘Landers and fanning seven Cloudland batters.

Fields and Jasmine Birchfield led the Cloudland hit attack with a 2-for-3 day at the plate collecting one RBI apiece.

Kibelback had two of the three hits UH had on the day. The Lady Bucs committed two errors in the game.