St. Clairsville girls down Barnesville

Advance to meet Monroe Central Thursday

By SETH STASKEY, T-L Sports Editor
Wins by no means have been plentiful this spring for the St. Clairsville Lady Red Devils.

However, the second season got under way Saturday afternoon with the Division III sectional tournament opener at St. Clairsville’s Junior Sports Complex and the Lady Red Devils left the field with a spotless 1-0 record.

St. Clairsville advanced to Thursday’s upper bracket sectional final against Monroe Central by virtue of a 5-2 victory over Barnesville.

“We’re finally coming around,” said first-year St. C. skipper Rachel Kolp. “It’s taken a while, but this is when it counts.”

As the Lady Red Devils begin preparations for the Lady Seminoles, the Lady Shamrocks are packing the helmets away with a 14-10 mark.

“I can’t complain about the season we’ve had,” said Barnesville head coach Eric Kerns. “We had a classy group of seniors, and this is a hard group to let go.”

Before attention shifted to the Lady Seminoles, the Lady Red Devils — whose offense had struggled at times this season — teed off on Lady Shamrocks’ pitchers Chelsey Keylor and Samantha Jefferis to the tune of eight hits.

“We adjusted to the slower pitching and sometimes that’s a struggle,” Kolp said. “We were able to get the timing down and our offense came through for us.”

The St. C. attack got it rolling in the top of the third. With one out and Alex Holub standing on second, lead-off hitter Cassandra Prezzia roped a double into the left-center gap.

After a strikeout, Caitlin Doty reached on an error before shortstop Ashley Gillespie singled home Prezzia. Doty raced around to score when Danielle Duvall reached on the second Lady Shamrocks’ error of the inning.

St. Clairsville tacked on another run in the fourth. Pitcher Kate Davison drew a two-out walk before Prezzia, Cherly Vicker followed with singles to load up the bases. Doty came through once again with a solid single, scoring Davison.

Barnesville finally broke through against Davison in the fourth. The Lady Shamrocks stranded runners in each of the first three innings.

“We’ve had had some innings this year where we get girls on, but we can’t get that key hit,” said Barnesville skipper Eric Kerns. “We were able to get people in position to score, but we just couldn’t get that hit when we needed it.”

Megan Phillips and Katy Stephen reached base via a single and a fielder’s choice. After a pop-out was recorded, ninth-hitter Allison Plumly singled.

Catcher Megan Kemp then proceeded to bloop a single into shallow right, pushing across both Phillips and Stephen, shaving the lead in half.

St. Clairsville tacked on an insurance run in the seventh. Danielle Duvall slugged a one-out single and eventually moved up to second on a wild pitch. After a pop-out, Kolp went to her bench and brought on pinch-hitter Jennifer Antosz.

All she was rope a double to the fence in left-center, scoring Duvall, giving St. C. its fifth run of the contest.

“Give St. Clairsville all of the credit in the world because when they got girls into scoring position they got the big hit they needed to score runs,” Kerns continued. “They played a great game and deserved to win.”

Davison didn’t even allow the Lady Shamrocks to think about igniting a rally in the bottom of the seventh, sitting down the Lady Shamrocks in order as she did the last three innings of the contest.

All told, Davison struck out eight and walked three in earning the mound win.

Keylor was the losing pitcher for the Lady Shamrocks. All told, the Barnesville pitchers sat down only three with the strikeout.

Prezzia and Gillespie had two hits each to lead St. Clairsville. The Lady Red Devils — who committed nary an error — received a sterling defensive game from frosh catcher Tashia Hummel.

Barnesville’s offense was fueled by Phillips’ two hits.

Looking ahead to Thursday, Kolp admittedly didn’t know a lot about Monroe Central, but don’t expect the Lady Devils to back down from the top seed.

“We’re ready for them,” Kolp said. “Bring em on.”

Linescore:

St. Clairsville 003 100 1 — 5 8 0

Barnesville 000 200 0 — 2 5 2

BATTERIES: Davison and Hummel. Keylor, Jefferis (5) and Kemp.