Cousins lift Lady Pioneers over Mapletown
ROGERSVILLE – West Greene’s Bailey Bennington compiled 13 strikeouts and threw a six inning no-hitter and Madison Renner garnered six RBIs, as the Lady Pioneers remained unbeaten in Section 1-A play with a 12-0 rout of Mapletown Wednesday afternoon.
West Greene and Chartiers-Houston were the only two unbeaten teams left in the section heading into their showdown scheduled for Thursday.
Bennington and Renner have been the catalysts for West Greene in the early part of the season, shouldering the load both in the pitching circle and at the plate.
“We are going to win with pitching and defense, and everyone knows that,” WG coach Billy Simms said. “It’s very important to get that early lead and dictate the game. Bailey and Madison are cousins and they are our top pitchers. They both are also outstanding with the bat and I think they push each other. It’s a friendly competition between the two.”
The Lady Pioneers (5-1, 2-0) were scheduled to play a make-up game versus Chartiers-Houston Thursday before meeting Jefferson-Morgan next Tuesday at California University’s Lilley Field.
Bennington fanned the first eight batters she faced and avoided two scoring chances by the Lady Maples (2-2, 1-2). The junior pitcher allowed no hits and battled around three walks and two infield errors.
“Bailey had more zip on her pitches and she showcased that today,” Simms said. “She pitched three, no-hit innings on Tuesday against Fort Cherry and she was just in one of those zones. Bailey has worked extremely hard in the off-season and she wants to win.”
Mapletown’s Lauren Adams was tagged with the loss for the visitors.
“West Greene had those two big innings late and that was the difference maker,” Mapletown coach Doug McIntire said. “They jumped out to that early lead and were in control from the get-go. I like our defense and pitching, but we just couldn’t put enough hits together and left too many runners on base.”
West Greene struck in the first when Emily Goodwin singled and scored on an RBI double by Bennington. Renner was the next batter and made it 3-0 after launching a two-run homer to right-center field.
After a scoreless second inning, the Lady Pioneers scratched out a run on a two-out single by Renner. The freshman shortstop advanced to third after two passed balls and scored on a RBI hit by Linzee Stover to make it 4-0.
The Lady Maples threatened to score in the third with two outs after a walk to Emily Blaker, an infield error that Makenzie Cree reached first safely on and another free pass to Elisa Clark. The rally was quickly thwarted by Bennington on an infield pop-up to short.
In the fifth inning, Bennington got out of a one-out, two-on jam with a strikeout and then caught Mapletown in a rundown between second and third base.
The Lady Pioneers plated four runs in the bottom half of the fifth, via two outfield errors, a sacrifice fly by Renner and an RBI squeeze bunt by Sage Vliet.
West Greene invoked the 10-run rule in the sixth after a RBI single by Bennington and a 3-run blast to centerfield by Renner. The Lady Pioneers tallied 13 hits in the victory.
“Madison is capable of tearing down the fences and getting those home runs,” Simms said. “She plays with a lot of confidence and she has played all over the country year-round. I really don’t consider her a freshman for us. The one thing I like about her is that she is able to adjust to the pitcher and get her pitch most at-bats.”
Mapletown will look to get back to their winning ways today at home in a non-section contest against Hundred (WV) at 4:15 p.m.
“It’s early in the season and we are not panicking,” McIntire said. “We have a couple of good hitters on our team and we just have to play with confidence. We need to regroup and put some work in at practice.”