Wildcats Challenge Undefeated Bison Before Falling At Home
With a late hitting surge, the Buffalo Gap softball team pulled away from a 1-1 tie to deal Rockbridge County a 9-1 home loss in nine innings in Shenandoah District action on Monday of last week in Lexington.
The loss dropped the Wildcats to 3-2 overall and 2-2 in the district. With a 13-3 win over Alleghany on Thursday, Gap improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the district.
“We caused some chaos for Buffalo Gap,” said RC head coach Keston Pelter. “I believe they took us just a little too lightly. My girls made them play ball.”
Pelter said her players “showed up and they are playing well and having fun. We are just as competitive as any team in the Shenandoah District.”
In the first inning, Gap’s Bailey Tribble singled on a line drive to right field, and Paige Showalter tripled, also on a line drive to right field, to bring home Tribble, giving the Bison a 1-0 lead.
The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Wildcats got singles by Gracie Pelter, Lilly Thomas and Bella Dorey to load the bases. Page Wright then singled on a grounder to second base to drive in Pelter, tying the game at 1-1.
Strong pitching and fielding sent the game past the seventh inning into extra innings, and the Wildcats used their recently installed stadium lights for the first time.
The Wildcats recorded three singles in the bottom of the eighth, but the Bison ended the inning with a groundout.
In the top of the ninth, Gap’s offense came alive. Due to the international tiebreaker rule, the Bison started the inning with a baserunner, Taylor Mealy, on second base. Rachel Showalter singled on a line drive to right field, and Mealy and Showalter both scored on an RC error after Avery Wheeler hit a fly ball and reached first base, giving Gap a 3-1 lead.
The Bison added three runs on singles by Faith Showalter, Elissa Caricofe and Paige Showalter, extending their lead to 6-1. Mackenzie Wooddell then tripled on a fly ball to left field to drive home two runs. With no outs, McKenzie Woods brought in Wooddell for the final run of the game when she singled on a hard grounder to shortstop. The Wildcats made three pop-outs to retire the side, but they faced a 9-1 deficit.
In the bottom of the ninth, RC’s Landry Campbell was placed on second base, and she advanced to third when Dorey grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Gap ended the game with strong fielding and a strikeout.
Praising her players, Pelter said, “I’m really proud of their effort. In the end, it came down to the team that made the adjustments and started hitting the ball.”
Gap racked up 15 hits, while RC had 10. Paige Showalter led the Bison with five hits, while Tribble had three hits. Willow Rogers paced RC with three hits, while Sadie Moore had two.
The Wildcats committed four errors, while the Bison had one.
On the mound, Rachel Showalter pitched a complete game for Gap, striking out 11 while allowing 10 hits, one walk and one earned run.
For RC, Moore pitched a complete game, striking out 10 while surrendering 15 hits, two walks and nine runs (seven earned). “I couldn’t be more proud of Sadie,” said Pelter, noting that the senior hurler threw more than 170 pitchers. “By the ninth inning, she was facing batters that had already been to the plate four times.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to play at Staunton on Monday before playing host to Riverheads yesterday. They’ll continue district action at Fort Defiance on Thursday at 6 p.m. before playing a nondistrict home game against Rocktown on Monday at 5:30 p.m. On Tuesday, they’ll visit local rival Parry McCluer at 5 p.m. When RC and PM met in Lexington on March 26, the Wildcats won 17-0 in five innings.
Looking forward to what’s ahead, Pelter said she and her assistant coaches “continue to tell the girls, one game at a time and one team at a time. When we play together and get behind each other, we continue to have good things happen.”
