Herbert Hoover’s Jessica Canterbury lays down a sacrifice bunt against Nitro. F. Brian Ferguson | Gazette-Mail
By: Ryan Pritt, Staff Writer | Posted: April 12, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Over the course of three games in two days against both Class AA state title game combatants from a year ago, Nitro coach Greg Garber learned a lot about just how far his team had come.
On Thursday, defending champion Herbert Hoover showed the Wildcats just how much further they have to go.
Nitro (12-3) did some nice things, and they also did some things reflective of its youth and inexperience. The Huskies were more than eager to take advantage, riding a strong start from Delani Buckner to a 5-0 win in the first game and using the bats to erase some early mistakes for a 15-5 mercy-rule win in four innings in the nightcap.
The Wildcats also lost a tight 2-0 decision to Chapmanville on Wednesday night.
Buckner struck out 13 in the first game and stranded nine Wildcats. Cleanup hitter Kirsten Belcher led the offensive onslaught in both contests as Hoover stretched its perfect record to 15-0.
There was plenty for Garber to be enthused about, and there was plenty for Hoover coach Missy Smith to preach to her team about by the time Thursday night’s games came to a close. But two things were evident — first, Nitro is not the same team that had won just 14 games in four years prior to this season, and second, any aspirations of a Class AA state championship likely have to come through the Huskies.
“Lord, from where these kids have come from, they’re doing awesome and I think everybody sees it,” Garber said. “All I’m trying to do is trying to get them out of that. When you’re a junior shortstop like Hailey Harr and you’ve only won seven games in two years — it’s something to battle and they know it. I’ve got three or four kids starting that haven’t hardly played at all ever. I think you saw how we played and that’s what I think will take us to the next level.”
For much of game one, Nitro freshman pitcher Bella Savilla matched Buckner zero for zero, but a four-run uprising in the third, highlighted by a two-run double for Belcher and a two-run single for Buckner, proved to be too much for the Wildcats to overcome. The Huskies added a fifth run in the fifth inning when Belcher tripled and scored on a wild pitch.
Belcher, who has moved into the cleanup spot after Dellani Fix graduated last year, has excelled for the most part, leading the Huskies in RBIs and adding four more to her total on Thursday.
“It’s been a big difference going from the five or six hole to the four hole,” Belcher said. “I’ve just tried to do my job as best I can and help out my team.”
She certainly helped out in the second game, coming up with perhaps the biggest swing of the night.
The Wildcats took a 3-0 lead on the strength of three walks and two errors in the top of the first and Savilla got the first two hitters of Hoover’s lineup in order. With Nitro riding momentum and settling in, Mallori Chapman laced a two-out double off the fence and Belcher followed with a full-count, two-run blast to right field, snatching the Wildcats’ new-found momentum away.
Though Savilla escaped the frame with no further damage, the tide had already turned. Savilla threw 212 pitches on the night and tossed every frame but the final one with Morgan Burdette coming on in relief, and she did it while facing down one of the premier lineups in the state.
To prove that point, Rylee Nottingham entered the game and led off the second inning for Hoover with a single, eventually scoring, and then capped a nine-run burst with a two-run home run of her own. All told, 12 Huskies came to the plate in the second frame and Nitro committed four errors as the Huskies seized control.
“We talk all the time about we can’t be successful without every member of our team being ready all the time,” Smith said. “When you get the chance to go in and do your job, you’ve got to do your job and that’s exactly what Rylee did. It’s next girl up. When somebody’s struggling, your job is to pick your sister up and that’s exactly what they did.”
From the outside, all would seem to be clicking for a Hoover team that has given up just 17 runs in 15 games and has won 12 games by eight runs or more.
But Smith said she has yet to see her team come close to peaking, and believes improvements will have to be made for the Huskies to defend their championship.
“We’re not where I’d like us to be,” Smith said. “We still haven’t played a complete game offensively and defensively. We’ve given up some at-bats and we’ve kicked some balls around — our defense is really not where I’d like it to be. I hate that for our pitchers. When we make a good pitch and we get the ball we want and the defense lets us down, I get furious about that, because in a tight ballgame, those kill you.”
“It’s different being the person defending rather than trying to get it,” Belcher added. “We can feel the pressure. You’re the team with the target on your back. Every team wants to beat you but you just have to do your job every day and make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Belcher reached base in all six of her at-bats, adding two walks to her four hits. Presley McGee, who earned the win in the circle in the second game, doubled in the first game and drove in two with a single in the night cap. Rebekah Woody had a combined three hits with an RBI, Cortney Fizer was 4 for 5 with four RBIs and Chapman doubled and tripled in game two.
Hailey Harr had a pair of singles in the first game for Nitro with Lydia Sweat registering an RBI double in the second.
Reach Ryan Pritt at 304-348-7948, ryan.pritt@wvgazettemail.com or follow him @RPritt on Twitter.
