Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
Gordonsville started slow, but exploded on offense late in their 18-7 win over Peabody on Wednesday to keep their season alive.
Neither team scored until the bottom of the third inning, as Tigerette starter Kailey Plumlee held the Lady Tide off the board for the first two innings. After Peabody loaded the bases with no one out in the bottom of the third, a walk scored the game’s first run to make it 1-0 Lady Tide.
Plumlee limited the damage to just that however, and kept the score at just a one-run margin. The freshman then delivered the big hit the Tigerettes were looking for in the fourth, as she cleared the bases with a three-run double to give Gordonsville a 3-1 lead.
After Peabody tied the score in the bottom half of the inning, Gordonsville took full control of the game with a four-run fifth inning that was highlighted by a Kali Underwood two-run single. Plumlee delivered a shutdown inning in the bottom half, and the Tigerettes outscored the Lady Tide 11-4 over the final two innings to earn the 18-7 victory and keep their season going.
“The obstacles of the rain and the wet ball kind of got us at the end,” said GHS head coach Jonathan Bush. “We started out slow. With a 10 a.m. game, it’s sometimes hard to get the girls going that early, but we got it going and got a win. Now we turn around at 4 and play Gleason.”
Plumlee finished the day with five innings, five runs given up and 13 strikeouts to go along with 11 walks. While the rain got her out of sorts at the end, Bush says they were monitoring her pitch count and thought she threw the ball really well on Wednesday.
“We said at a certain point with her pitch count, we were going to get her out and we did,” Bush said. “I thought she threw it really well, we just felt like it was time to get her out of the game.”
The quick turnaround sees the Tigerettes play the aforementioned Gleason Lady Lions, scheduled for 4 p.m. What Bush hopes he sees is a team ready to play from the word go.
“We’ve got to come in more focused at the start of the game,” Bush said. “I didn’t think we came out very focused at the start of this one, and that’s on me. We’ll do a better job and be more prepared for the game.”
