Miscues doom Parkersburg High School in loss to Cabell Midland
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PARKERSBURG -- Miscues from Parkersburg in a 9-7 loss to Cabell Midland ultimately made the difference, as the Big Reds dropped an early-season Mountain State Athletic Conference tilt on Saturday. However, head coach Jason Roberts' squad still had a chance to claw back into the game in the late stages.
Starting Parkersburg pitcher Kylie Conley had ups and downs during her time on the mound, but she helped her own cause in a major way. She went 3-for-4 with a double, triple and three runs batted in. Her second-to-last AB kicked off a meaningful scoring surge with PHS down 7-3 beforehand.
With one away in the frame, Kisten Roberts was first aboard in the fifth when she slapped a single for her second hit of the afternoon. Next up, Jillian Nay roped a double into the outfield, which also advanced Roberts to third. Then, Conley delivered with an RBI-single to make it a 7-4 ballgame.
Rylee Jones was next, and she was in the box when a passed ball from Cabell Midland pitcher Jessica Terry caused Nay to come home from third. The two-run advantage for the visiting nights soon turned to one, when Jones scored Conley on an RBI groundout.
Unfortunately, the rally stopped there. Lilly Boice's ensuing single was not enough to bring any runs across, as Makailyn Munday (who made good contact all day by finishing 2-for-3 with an RBI) grounded out to end the fifth.
Mistakes reared up in the visiting part of the sixth, when Quinlyn Ballengee reached on one of the four walks issued by Conley.
That kicked off the inning, and the speedy Ballengee stole second base soon after.
An error in the infield got Kaitlyn Wallis aboard with one away, as Ballengee advanced to third on the botch.
Heads-up baserunning from the Knights helped create enough distance. Wallis went to steal second which drew a late throw to second base. That freed up Ballengee to steal home in the process. Both Wallis and Ballengee were safe, as Cabell took an 8-6 lead after the double-steal.
One more run scored, as PHS was down to its last three outs down by three A pair of CM errors made things interesting, as Roberts and Nay reached with no outs to lead off the seventh. With runners at the corners, Conley represented the tying run but could only score one run on a sac fly to center. A pair of flyouts to right ended the game, as Roberts and company are still looking for something that sticks.
"We're young, and we are expecting other kids to step up," Roberts said following the setback. "We didn't have anybody step up, including our seniors. They've had opportunities to try to win games, hold back runs. We made mistakes where we haven't been making mistakes, so when you make mistakes playing decent or good teams, you're pitching behind the gun. It's hard to come back, especially when your good players aren't playing well. Anytime you can get runners on, it's a good thing. It doesn't really matter how you get there, but after that, you're not always going to get lucky. You've got to have people hitting the ball and swinging good bats, and today, we just weren't from top to bottom."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com