Raiders hand Battlefield first district loss in softball

By Dave Utnik

Published: April 11, 2008

Melissa Kirby knelt down in the pitcher’s circle Friday afternoon and rubbed some dirt on the palm of her hand.

Then, she took a deep breath and an extra second or two to collect her thoughts.

Behind her on the bases stood three members of the visiting team, but Stonewall Jackson’s sen-ior ace hardly gave them a glance. There was nothing in her facial expression to suggest that she was even remotely concerned.

Bases loaded situations aren’t Kirby’s favorite thing in the world, but she’s learned to deal with them. So even against a Battlefield squad that is being hailed as one of the state’s best, she confi-dently slapped a softball into her glove and prepared to face one of her biggest challenges of the season.

“You have to stay positive in situations like that,” Kirby said. “I was just trying to hit my spots, keep the ball down and let my defense take care of it. I trust them back there.”

In this particular instance, Kirby didn’t need any help. She took care of the Bobcats all by herself — striking out Megan Sutphin, who had singled in her two previous at-bats, and then catching pop-ups by Brittany Clendenny and Kelsey Sayres to secure a 1-0 victory over the Cedar Run District’s most talented team.

“Bases loaded against a team like that, it’s a one in 10 chance that we get out of it,” Stonewall coach Jason Koch said. “I’m definitely going to play the lottery tonight.”

Luck actually had very little to do with the Raiders’ most significant victory of the season — one that boosted Stonewall (6-2, 2-1) into a virtual tie for the district lead.

That’s because Kirby struck out nine and used an exceptional changeup to become the first pitcher this season to shut out the Bobcats, who fell to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in the Cedar Run District. She allowed five hits against a prolific batting order that has been without injured star Brittany Black, who pinch hit in the seventh and is expected to be back in the starting lineup against Lou-doun Valley on Tuesday.

“She’s a very impressive pitcher with good control and she wasn’t going to give us anything,” Battlefield coach Joe Schelzo said of Kirby. “We’ve been getting the timely hits all season and we just didn’t get any today.”

Instead, it was Raiders’ catcher Kasey Miller who came through with a runner in scoring posi-tion. Her two-out single into left field in the fourth inning resulted in the game’s only run as Ashley Smith, who was hit by a pitch to start the rally, slid in safely ahead of a strong throw home from freshman Bailey Liddle.

“That was a nice slide by Ashley,” Miller said.

And Miller’s hit was even better. After flying out in her first at-bat against Sutphin, she slapped an outside pitch just past Clendenny at short for the most significant hit of her varsity career.

“I was pretty happy with it,” Miller said. “I knew that my team needed me and that I needed to get the base runners in.

“[Sutphin] is very good at hitting the corners and I was expecting it,” Miller said. “We didn’t do very well last year so this is a pretty big win.”