By Ben Davis (bdavis@starhq.com)
With the much anticipated game against Team USA surely looming in the back of their minds, Milligan was able to pull off a split in a big Appalachian Athletic Conference double-header against UVA-Wise on Saturday in a pair of games that featured the league’s top two teams.
The Lady Buffs won the opener 3-2 before the Lady Cavaliers were able to salvage the nightcap by an identical score.
The split allows Milligan (8-2, 22-15) to retain sole possession of first place in the AAC while UVA-Wise (17-13, 9-3) remains in second, three games ahead of third place King College (17-20, 6-6).
The Lady Buffs can now finally turn their full concentration to the culmination of a strenuous week, which is today’s 2 p.m. showdown with the U.S. National Women’s team at Cardinal Park in Johnson City.
“It’s been a long week,” Milligan coach Wes Holly said after yesterday’s games at Anglin Field. “We can focus all are attention on tomorrow (the Team USA game) now.”
The Lady Buffs opened the week with three straight double-headers. They swept AAC foe Montreat on the road Monday then split another pair of league games with Union at home on Tuesday before heading to Maryville on Wednesday, where they took one of two . They then had two days off before yesterday’s tilt with UVA-Wise.
Going 5-3 in a span of six days is good, but it’s even more impressive when there is a game awaiting you on the seventh day against the best softball players in the world.
“We are glad it’s here,” Coach Holly noted of the Team USA game. “I am pleased the way the girls focused this week. These two big games (against UVA-Wise) are over. I told the girls to do your best because it’s been a long week for them. We will have played five out of seven days.”
While the Olympians, who beat the University of Tennessee 4-2 on Saturday in Knoxville, will obviously be the Lady Buffs the strongest competition of the tiring week, there is also a sense of relief that the long-awaited event is here.
“We have been working for this,” said Coach Holly. “We are going to get a good nights rest and get up and go over there in the morning and just try and have fun and do the best we can.”
That rest probably came easier last night after Milligan was able to get one game against the Lady Cavaliers giving the Lady Buffs the comfort of knowing they are still at the top of the AAC standings.
“Overall, we feel good about it,” said Coach Holly. “We would like to have won both games. Winning the first game was huge.”
Milligan fell behind 2-0 in the first inning of the opening contest, but Jessica Blevins later launched a two-run homer and Sarah Smith had an RBI single helping the Lady Buffs get the comeback victory.
Laken Stewart, Leah White, Mallory Tincher and Jessica Russell each added a hit in game one.
Freshman pitcher Sidney Burns, who will start in the circle against Team USA, got the win after going the distance and scattering five hits while fanning eight batters.
“Jessica Blevins came up with a big hit,” Coach Holly said of the first game. “Our defense was a little bit sloppy the first couple of innings. We let them get ahead and then had to play catch up ball. I am very proud of the girls. They fought back and made a great comeback and pulled the game out.”
Blevins went 2-4 in the second game while Heather Poindexter, Ryann Musick and Tincher each pounded out hits, but the Lady Cavaliers were able to take the win after again jumping out to an early lead.
Burns took the loss after going four innings allowing three runs on six hits while fanning three batters and walking one. Musick pitched the final three innings giving up no runs on one hit and striking out three.
“We would have liked to have won the second game,” Coach Holly said. “We left several runners stranded on base and didn’t really get a clutch hit until the last inning when we needed one and we still had a chance to pull the ball game out or tie it up, but there again we just didn’t get enough clutch hits.”
estarsports
Leave a Reply