by Rusty Ellis
Coverage of the Spring Fling is presented by Steel Technologies
It was the Kailey Plumlee show to open the Class A State Tournament, as the sophomore southpaw led the Gordonsville Tigerettes over Dresden, 7-0.
Plumlee was dominant in the circle, finishing the game with seven shutout innings and 16 strikeouts compared to just three walks and one hit allowed.
Plumlee opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first inning, and after another run came home in the second on a Makenize Herron RBI single, Plumlee blasted a two-run home run in the third to blow the game wide open.
The Tigerettes took a 5-0 lead on an RBI fielder’s choice, and two more runs came home on a two-run single for Bailey Stewart to push the lead to its final margin of 7-0.
There’s plenty for coach Randy Jennings to be excited about, as he says he was pleased with just about every aspect of the win on Tuesday.
“We came out and scored a couple runs early, and that’s always nice,” Jennings said. “You give us five runs like that, we’re always going to take that and run with it.”
After their sectional win over Whitwell on Saturday, Jennings said it wasn’t the best performance from Plumlee, who still struck out 14 batters to her credit.
Needless to say, she had her best stuff on Tuesday.
“She was much better today, her stuff was much better,” Jennings said. “When she throws a couple days in a row, she usually gets better so we’re expecting her to keep this rolling.”
It won’t get easier for the Tigerettes, as they’ll face a tough Eagleville team on Wednesday afternoon at 1 P.M. in the winner’s bracket.
For Gordonsville to come out with a win, Jennings knows it’ll take a similar effort and then some in order to do so.
“The season’s real short now,” Jennings said. “(Winning) is the name of the game, if you can stay in the winner’s bracket, that’s less games you have to play and less pitches you have to throw…the less you have to throw, the better you’ll be on the back-end of the tournament.”
Photos by Michael Lindsay
