The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

Victory field
Miners christen new field with 8-5 win over Golden Tornado
Mountain Ridge improves to 3-0

By Kevin Spradlin
PhDispatch.com
FROSTBURG, March 29 -- If the Mountain Ridge Miners are to local high school softball what the New York Yankees are to Major League Baseball, then maybe the Miners should be known as the Baby Boppers.

They're young - but they sure can hit.

The Miners bullied their way to a six-run second inning and held off a late Keyser rally to earn an 8-5 AMAC win over the Golden Tornado on Tuesday in Frostburg. It was the inaugural game on the new diamond at Mountain Ridge High School, still in only its fourth year of existence.

Compared to most other softball fields used in conference play, this field is a bit larger. The pitcher's mound is 43 feet, instead of 40 feet, from home plate. The outfield fence is 220 feet, instead of 200 feet, away from the batter.

Had it been the still normal size, perhaps three - and maybe more - of the Miners' long distance hits would have been home runs.

The game started well enough for Keyser pitcher Sam Hoban. After a scoreless top of the first, Hoban struck out Amber Ravenscroft (swinging) and induced a fly ball to second base from Stephanie Fazenbaker.

Hoban might have gotten sidetracked after issuing a walk to Taylor Llewellyn, but she let a pitch to Miners' sophomoer clean-up hitter up and Shae Winner belted it to deep left-center field for an RBI triple. Winner gave Mountain Ridge a 2-0 lead when she scored on a Hoban wild pitch to Kaylee DeVore.

Hoban's bad luck continued in the second inning. Meg Beal led off with a double to left-center and moved to third on a single by sophomore pitcher Carlie Lewis.

Both runners held as Maggie Wilson flew out to centerfield but the next batter, Kate Llewellyn, doubled home both runners for a 4-0 Miners lead. Ravenscroft followed up with a relatively easy groundball that some said took a bad hop on Keyser first baseman Carly Burns. Regardless, Llewellyn scored to up Mountain Ridge's lead to 5-0.

And the Miners weren't done yet. A walk by Hoban to Fazenbaker put runners on first and second with only one out. Hoban got Taylor Llewellyn to fly out to right field, setting up a two-out, two-on showdown with Winner.

Winner won. The ball came off the bat hard and flew high down the left field foul line, avoided the glove of Keyser left fielder Marlee Whitlock and landed about a foot in fair territory. Both Ravenscroft and Fazenbaker scored on the play and Winner stood on second with her second extra-base hit in as many at-bats - and innings.

DeVore capped the six-run inning with a hard double to center that, on most area fields, would likely have been a home run. After two innings, Mountain Ridge held an 8-0 lead. It didn't seem likely the Miners were finished scoring - but they were.

By mercy rule, it seemed destined the Miners would end their first game on the new field early. Destiny, however, said they'd play six and one-half innings - and sweat a bit, too.

Keyser crawled back - albeit, maybe only an inch of the way - in the top of the third. With one out, Ali Whiteman smacked a single to shallow center. Burns moved Whiteman to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Carrie Riggleman - who defined herself as a "normal" hitter - powered an RBI single to pull the Golden Tornado to within 8-1.

Lewis covered, though. The top of the fourth went quickly - four pitches-quick, in fact. Lexi Carr lined out to shortstop, Brooke Mangold hit a pop fly to second base and Hoban hit a grounder to short for an easy 6-3 inning-ending play.

The fifth inning wasn't much better for Keyser - but only because it started with hope that was quickly dashed. Meg Anderson singled and Taylor Haggerty hit a fly ball to shallow right to put two runners on with no outs. Whiteman grounded out to second, but both runners advanced. The threat was erased, however, when Lewis got Burns to strike out swinging and Riggleman hit a liner to to the right side that was caught by a sliding Fazenbaker.

The top of the sixth, though, was quite a bit different for the Golden Tornado. Coach Tina Stephens called it the "best inning we've had in a long time."

With one out, Carr singled and moved to third on an error. Mangold followed with an RBI triple. So did Hoban. So did Anderson. Just like that, it was 8-4 Mountain Ridge with a runner on third and only one out.

Haggerty hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Anderson to pull within 8-5. It almost seemed the momentum wasn't over when Whiteman hit a screamer past second but Burns ended the inning by grounding out to short.

Lewis and the Miners made Keyser go quietly - and quickly - in a routine seventh inning. Riggleman flew out to left, Whitlock struck out swinging and Carr also flew out to left.