Warriors win slugfest over Buffs

Published 8:48 am Monday, April 17, 2023

By Ron Marvel

Star Correspondent

The Lady Warriors banged out 18 hits on the road against West Greene Thursday in a 17-14 victory. They displayed patience at the plate all evening if they were not hitting, they were grabbing walks, 12 in total, sending a total of 54 batters to the plate.

The Lady Warriors actually went quiet in the first inning, but down by two runs and two outs, the bats got going in the second, scoring ten runs off five hits and seven walks to take a 10-2 lead. Aleah Grindstaff would knock home two off a line drive to right field, then Makayla Miller, who would finish the night 4-4 with three doubles, would get one of those doubles with one out in the top of the second plating Trista Bowers, Reagan Street and Ella Marvel. West Greene would respond with four runs of their own to make it 10-6 going into the third. The Lady Warriors would score two more in the top of the third off singles from Miller and Street to push the lead to 12-6.

The game would settle down in the middle innings to some extent, but the Warriors would get going again in the fifth. Marvel would start the inning off with a single to right followed up by another Miller double. Julie Nieminski would then get a base hit to score two, making it 15-7. Up by eight, the Warriors had to feel comfortable but the Buffs would respond by picking up a run after a couple of stolen bases by Alexis Everett and an RBI single by Haley Ripley to make it 15-8

The Warriors would not go quietly in the sixth as back-to-back doubles by Marvel and Miller would get the inning going. After Natalie Cline was hit by a pitch, Nieminski would hit a blooper into shallow right, scoring two and making it 17-8, but once again, West Greene would respond with six runs in the bottom of the sixth. Lady Buff Hope Sexton was a terror all night, going 4-4  with seven RBI’s but the biggest hit she had was a grand slam to pull the Lady Buffs to within three going into the seventh.

The Lady Warriors would once again load the bases but after a pop-up by Mailey Guy and a hard grounder by Cline, they would leave them full. The Warriors finished the game by getting a couple of strikeouts and then a fly ball to second baseman Trinity Bowers.

Miller would finish the night with five RBIs, Ella Marvel would also pick up four hits on the night and Julie Nieminski would add three hits of her own. Marvel would get the win off the mound picking up ten strikeouts. After the contest, Senior third baseman Reagan Street talked about the team’s efforts, “we fought all night long just battled and it paid off for us; our dugout was so loud tonight and supportive any time you can get a conference win on the road you take it!” Coach Hunter Buchanan talked about his team’s progress, “we have a lot to work on, but we fought hard tonight Makayla Miller had a phenomenal night at the plate and we got production from 1-9 tonight; I am proud of what our girls were able to do.”