Photo by Brian Hoffman
The James River softball team will host Eastern Montgomery in a non-district game today, then wrap up the regular season with three straight Three Rivers District games on the road.
The Knights are looking to finish the regular season strong after dropping two district games last week, falling to Glenvar and Radford. With the two losses the Knights are 1-7 in the Three Rivers and 4-9 overall.
Last Wednesday against Glenvar, Hannah Street pitched a complete game and hit a two-run home run as the Highlanders took a 10-4 win in Springwood. Street scattered eight hits on the mound, and she also had an RBI double. Sydnee Breeding and Audrey Benson had two hits each for the Knights.
On Thursday at Radford the Bobcats took advantage of two productive innings for a 6-2 win. In the bottom of the second inning Radford used three hits and two Knight errors to take a 3-0 lead. River got one run back in the third inning on a Breeding triple and a Ripley Barry sacrifice fly, but Radford then countered with a run in the bottom of the third on two hits.
James River cut the lead back to two runs, 4-2, in the top of the fifth inning on a Breeding double and a Cloey Joynes RBI single. The Bobcats then struck for two runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth for the final score.
Breeding led the Knights with four hits, including three doubles and a triple. Makayla Petty had two hits and Joynes, Keira Crawford, and Ella Hutchens had one hit each. Makenna Saville pitched a complete game for James River, allowing only three earned runs. Saville scattered nine hits.
“We only committed two errors, but they both came in the three-run second inning,” said River coach Steve Austin. “We spent the rest of the game trying to play catch up.
“In this game, and all year, we have had trouble stringing hits together. When we get nine hits, we should get more than two runs. We had a single hit in five different innings and two hits in the other two innings. We left eight runners on base, five in scoring position.”
River also played Carroll County last Tuesday, April 30, and took an 11-2 win. The Knights scored eight runs on eight hits, highlighted by a two-run home run by Barry, her seventh big fly of the season.
The Knights are at Patrick County Friday, at Glenvar Monday and at Carroll County on Thursday, May 16, to wrap up the regular season.
“Things are really tough for us right now, but the only way for things to get better is for us to keep fighting,” said Austin.
