By Stephen Smoot
As the Pendleton County softball season came to a close last week, the Moorefield game loomed large on the schedule. About four weeks ago, the Wildcats cruised to an easy 10-4 victory in Hardy County. Since then, Moorefield has gone nine and four with an 8-7 victory over a Musselman team that defeated Pendleton County 2-1.
Both teams have seen their capabilities and fortunes rise through the year, making the rematch in Franklin highly anticipated.
A near perfect evening greeted the teams. Sunny skies and low 80s temperatures welcomed fans and players. Near perfect, however, meant that a powerful and consistent wind blew mostly from home plate towards the outfield. Pitchers and fielders faced a difficult evening with wind behind the ball pushing it deeper than normal and sometimes messing with the trajectory.
After the senior team members, Madison Arbaugh and Jaiden Mitts, was honored, the teams took to the field.
Moorefield led the game off with a walk on five pitches. Although not packing the same power as in recent seasons, the Yellow Jackets are well-coached and disciplined in every aspect of the game. Most of their hitters exercise patience and force pitchers to come to them instead of chasing outside the strike zone.
Susan Vincell pitched a complete game and outside of her 13 strikeouts, relied heavily on her defense to take hits away from Moorefield batters in tough conditions. The first two outs came on fly ball outs to right and center field and Vincell sat down the third on four pitches.
Moorefield treated Wildcat batters similarly in the bottom of the first, allowing one on and zero runs. Jess Parker picked up a seeing eye double up the middle and advanced to third on an error.
Scoring opened in the bottom of the second. Mitts drew a leadoff walk and the pitcher delivered the same to Kinsley Price. After a strikeout, Arbaugh bunted toward the pitcher and advanced the runners to second and third on the sacrifice. That brought up Jaycee Thompson who singled past second base and drove in the first two runs.
Moorefield’s best friend was the pesky wind. With one on and one out in the top of the third, a Moorefield batter lifted the ball high in the air. The wind made sure it cleared the outfield fence by about 10 feet and allowed the Yellow Jackets to knot the game at two.
An error later in the inning allowed Moorefield to take the lead 3-2.
Pendleton County wasted no time in correcting that. Parker drove a pitch to the centerfield wall to lead off with a double. Lexi Tingler came in to run for Parker and Vincell sent a line drive to centerfield. Tingler scored and tied the game at three.
Vincell kept the game tied by setting down the Yellow Jackets in order in the top of the fourth.
Thompson led off the bottom of the fourth with a line drive single to center. She was thrown out as the lead runner in the next at bat, but Molly Rowe remained safe on first. Laney Bowers then drove a ground ball past the right fielder and to the wall. Rowe and Bowers both scored on the play due to a throwing error, making the score 5-3.
Moorefield came up in the top of the fifth. Shortstop Price cleanly fielded a ground ball and patiently sent the ball to first to record the out. The next batter reached on a base hit, but a Mitts put out in center and a swing on third strike at the wrists ended the half-inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Wildcats went wild. Price led off with a single. Two batters later and with one out, Callie Judy clubbed a pitch and sent a ground ball to left. With two on and one out, Thompson, who went three for three with three runs batted in, pulled a pitch to right, sending Price home to push the score to 6-3.
Rowe followed by driving a triple to left field, scoring Thompson. She scored in the next at bat when Bowers lofted a sacrifice fly to right. That made the score 9-3.
The sixth inning passed without incident. Then came a scary seventh.
Moorefield’s old friend the wind blew back in. The leadoff batter drew a walk. Two hitters later, a Yellow Jacket drove a no balls and two strikes pitch over the centerfield fence. The next batter accomplished the same feat to left, also on no balls and two strikes.
This set the score at a much less comforting 9-6.
Pitches that Vincell blew past hitters in the early innings were now getting fouled off. The loudly audible pop when her pitches hit the glove indicated that she had not lost velocity, but the disciplined Moorefield batters were keying on her on their third time through. Vincell dug in and struck the next hitter out on four pitches.
After a single to short and the potential tying run coming on deck, the next batter stood in. Vincell got her to foul off two straight to the first base side, then tried to get her to bite on two pitches out of the strike zone. On ball two, Parker tried to gun down the baserunner stealing second and could not. Another foul showed the batter still battling.
Vincell then delivered a streaking fast ball that the batter swung on and missed, ending the contest.
Parker and Price each went two for four at the plate. Two of Moorefield’s batters accounted for five of their total seven hits. Vincell only walked a pair.
The next day, regional pairings came out. Pendleton County has the first seed and East Hardy second. The Wildcats will play the winner of Tucker County and Pocahontas County in the first bracket while East Hardy plays Tygarts Valley in the second. Teams that win twice in the double elimination format will advance to Charleston.
