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Tuesday, May 2 – Victoria Hamilton hit a walk-off grand slam to lift the Parry McCluer High School softball team to a 12-10 home win over Pioneer District rival Eastern Montgomery, and the PM baseball team cruised to a 12-1 home win in five innings over EM on Tuesday evening in Buena Vista.
On the softball field, the Fighting Blues (9-5 overall, 4-2 district) completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Mustangs (7-8, 3-4). When the teams met on April 5 at EM, the Blues won 11-8.
In the rematch, the Blues led 7-0 after scoring six runs in the fourth inning, but they struggled after starting pitcher Claudia Coleman went out with an injury.
The Mustangs rallied by scoring four runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to tie the game 7-7. EM took its first lead in the top of the seventh when Riley Kochel hit a grounder to drive in Mary Miller, and MacKenzie Hubbard walked with the bases loaded to bring home Sophia Vishneki, making it 9-7. Alexis Artrip then scored on a fly ball past second base by Allison Bower to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 10-7.
After making two outs, PM answered back in the bottom of the seventh. Logan Vest reached first base on a dropped third strike, Autumn Mundy singled on a grounder, and Olivia Julian hit a grounder to center field to drive in Vest. With one out, Gracey Shafer singled on a grounder to load the bases, setting up Hamilton to belt her four-run home run over the left field fence.
Hamilton and Julian led the Blues with two hits each.
Following Coleman’s injury, Julian pitched the remainder of the game to earn the save.
On the baseball field, it was a strong outing on the mound for PM’s Braedyn Houck, who pitched all five innings, striking out 11 and allowing four hits, four walks and one earned run.
The Blues (8-6, 5-4), who were coming off a 10-8 home loss to Bath County on Monday, had an impressive batting day on Tuesday, racking up 15 hits. Maison Hamilton led the way with three hits. Adding two hits each were Tanner Coleman, Evan Cook, Brayden Holdren, Aaron Pruett and Tyler Wade, who led PM with three RBIs.
With the win, PM completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Mustangs. When the teams met on April 5 at EM, the Blues won 19-3 in five innings.
In the rematch, the Blues took a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Coleman singled on a line drive to bring home Hamilton for the first run, and Wade doubled on a line drive to left field to drive in Coleman and Peyton Ramsey. Holdren then doubled on a line drive to center field to bring in Houck and Wade.
PM added four more runs in the third to extend its lead to 9-0. Wade singled to left field to bring home Houck. Several plays later, Mills put the ball in play with a grounder and reached on an error, driving in Wade and Cook. After the Blues loaded the bases, Ramsey walked to bring in Mills.
The Mustangs scored their lone run in the top of the fourth when Aidan Shepherd doubled on a line drive to left field to bring home Lucas Jones, cutting PM’s lead to 9-1.
The Blues responded by scoring their final three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Cook singled on a bunt to drive in Pruett, and Mills doubled on a line drive to center field to bring home Caleb Jones and Grayson Caldwell.
In the top of the seventh, the Mustangs got a walk and a single, Houck struck out the final three batters to allow the Blues to end the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Coltin Conner led EM with two hits, and Lucas Jones and Hunter Howard each had one hit.
The Mustangs committed four errors, while PM had one.
Both PM teams will travel take on nondistrict rival Nelson County on Friday at 7 p.m.
For the full stories and photos from this week’s action, please see our May 10 newspaper. Coverage of last week’s games will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
