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Friday, March 17 – Both the Rockbridge County High School baseball and softball teams won their home openers against Staunton on Friday evening in Lexington. In baseball, fueled by back-to-back home runs by Clay Irvine and Derek Smith, the Wildcats (1-1) earned an 8-2 win. The RC softball team (1-1) cruised to a 19-0 win in five innings, with freshman pitcher Sadie Moore striking out nine in the win.
Both teams were coming off road losses to Fort Defiance in their season openers on Thursday, when the Wildcats lost 4-3 in baseball and the RC softball team lost 10-2. It rained periodically during Friday’s games, but that didn’t seem to bother the Wildcats.
In Friday’s baseball game, junior Sean Martino pitched a complete game for the Wildcats, allowing just two hits.
On the softball field, the Wildcats didn’t waste time getting their offense going, scoring four runs in the second inning and racking up eight runs in the third. RC added seven runs in the fourth, and Moore threw three strikeouts in the fifth to end the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Lilly Purcell and Kelsie Caldwell led RC with three hits each.
Both RC teams are scheduled to play three home games next week, against Fort Defiance on Tuesday, Alleghany on Wednesday and James River on Friday. All games are slated to start at 5 p.m.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Friday’s games, please see our March 22 newspaper.
