The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Rain, tourney changes crush Lady Cavs’ All ‘A’ title hopes




In the first game of the All ‘A’ State Tournament, the Jenkins Lady Cavaliers faced Todd County.

In the first inning with 2 outs, Melissa Bartley hit a single, stole second and scored on a single from Caitlynn Estevez. Whitney Creech then hit a double and scored courtesy runner Katie DePriest, running for Estevez.

In the third inning, Lexi Stambaugh singled to center, Melissa Bartley reached base on an infield single, and both runners advanced on a fielder’s choice.

Whitney Creech singled to score Stambaugh and give the Lady Cavs a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth inning, Melissa Bartley singled and moved over on a sacrifice fly, Whitney Creech singled and stole second. McKenzie Gibson got a walk and loaded the bases. Bartley and Creech then scored on back-to-back wild pitches and the Lady Cavs took a 5-0 lead.

In the sixth inning, Charity Niece and Lexi Stambaugh both reached base on walks, Caitlynn Estevez reached base on an error, and Whitney Creech received a walk to score Niece and give Jenkins a 6-0 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, Todd County made a game of it as it had five hits, a walk and a Lady Cav error to cut the lead to 6-5. In the seventh inning, Jenkins picked up some insurance runs when Taylor Johnson, Rachel Spangler and Melissa Bartley received back-toback walks to load the bases with 2 outs. Caitlynn Estevez singled to score Johnson. Whitney Creech received a walk to score Spangler and make the final 8-5. Jenkins had 8 runs on 11 hits, Todd County had 5 runs on 5 hits.

In the second game of the day, Jenkins had to play back-to-back games facing Bishop Brossart. Bishop jumped out first as the leadoff batter, Graus, hit a triple to center. The second batter, Childress, singled to score Graus. Childress scored on a throwing error.

In the bottom half of the inning, Jenkins came back strong as Charity Niece received a walk, Lexi Stambaugh was hit by a pitch and Melissa Bartley hit a fielder’s choice. Caitlynn Estevez singled to score Stambaugh, and Whitney Creech reached base on an error.

A courtesy runner and Creech scored on a double to center from McKenzie Gibson and Jenkins took a 4-2 lead.

Bishop tied the game up in the second as it scored 2 runs on 4 walks and an infield single.

In the fourth inning, Bishop took the lead as Graus singled, stole second and got to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a fielder’s choice.

In the seventh, Bishop added a run when it got a runner on with an error and two singles to make the final 6-4.

Jenkins had 4 runs on 4 hits, Bishop had 6 runs on 8 hits.

The Lady Cavs advanced to the third round when the rain came and postponed game play for the day.

On Sunday, the All ‘A’ committee changed the format of the tournament stating that only the undefeated teams would advance instead of the double elimination format they started with. This left them with only four teams, crushing the hopes and dreams of girls on several teams that were sent home early, the Lady Cavs being one of those unfortunate teams.



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