Last Monday, the Lady Blue Devils walked away without a scratch on them from a 6-2 victory over the Huntington Bearcats.
The game was highlighted with a great pitching performance by sophomore Palynn Gregg and an electrifying 6th inning. This kind of gameplay and skill is what ultimately put the game out of reach for the Bearcats. Last year when these two teams met, B-A lost in a 3-1 heartbreaker.
B-A is currently .02 points away from Richland, who is currently in the 4th seed. This game meant a lot for the Lady Blue Devils as they end their regular season with a ti.500 record of 9-9. This earns them a hard-fought spot in the play-offs as the number 5 seed.
The first inning went well for the Lady Blue Devils. After giving up 1 in the top of the first, B-A responded with 2 runs of their own. Following the first inning the bats would stay quiet, neither team could seem to find a spark. That was until the electrifying 6th inning, where the Lady Blue Devils went from not really being able to make contact, to not being able to miss. They would go on to score 4 more runs to add on to the 2 runs they scored previously.
The Lady Bearcats attempted to fight back in the top of the 7th inning scoring 1, but that wasn’t enough to overcome B-A. That electrifying 6th inning gave a few B-A players a chance to show off what they could do.
The Blue and Gold got some help from junior London McKee. Ms. McKee would walk up to the plate casually but then deliver, smacking a double to the outfield. She would score off her double and also dink a single later in the game to go 2-for-3. McKee has produced well for B-A, currently holding the second highest on-base percentage, and third highest batting average on the team.
Over the course of the first few innings the Lady Blue Devils relied heavily on the big bat of Junior Parker Martin, who accumulated 2 hits out of 3 at bats. Ms. Martin would also accumulate 2 runs and 2 RBI in the big win. One out of those 2 hits would tower right over the Lady Bearcats heads and over the fence for her first home run of the season, and of her high school career. Ms. Martin claims she knew the ball was hit well but didn’t think it was going over the fence.
When asked how it felt to hit her first home run of the season and of her high school career, she replied “It felt very good and relieving. I’ve been very very close many times, so finally getting one over was extremely exciting. My teammates and coaches were all very happy for me, so that made the moment a whole lot better.”
Martin has become a predictor of the Lady Blue Devils’ success due to leading the team in the highest batting average, on-base percentage, stolen bases, runs, hits, slugging percentage, and last but not least, doubles. Martin is currently leading the team in 7 major statistics.
Although the bats were hot, they were not the only reason the Lady Blue Devils came out victorious. As stated earlier, the game was highlighted by an absolutely fabulous pitching performance by Sophomore, Palynn Gregg. Ms. Gregg started off the game slow, giving up 1 in the first and not being able to find the strike zone. It quickly picked up in the 2nd and she didn’t look back, as she started to get strike out, after strike out, after strike out. Ms. Gregg would only surrender 2 earned runs on 7 hits and by the end of the game she would set a season high personal strike out record, with 11 strikeouts.
They move on to the playoffs where they will look to continue this same kind of gameplay against the current 4th seed, the Richland Rams. Looking at the statistics, the game looks like it would be in Richlands favor. For Average Runs Scored or ARS, B-A is currently 2nd to last in their bracket with 4.78 compared to Richland, 6.76. Within the double A district play-offs, other than Moshannon Valley and Mount Union Area, B-A has given up the most runs over the course of the season allowing 120 runs to score. Although the statistics may not be in B-A’s favor, let’s not forget what happened the last time these two teams met.
The last time these two teams met, on the 1st of this month, Paylynn Gregg terrorized Richland batters. Ms. Gregg would throw a complete game, striking out 10 batters over 11 innings, while giving up 4 earned runs and 2 unearned runs off of just 9 hits the whole game. She would also contribute with a double in that game. Abby Claybaugh also played a huge part in that win going 3-for-5 with a double and also stealing a base. That game would end with a final score of 8-7. Although it was a hard-fought game, B-A will do everything they can to make the game go smoothly tonight, when they travel to Richland to start their play-off journey against the Rams.
