HURRICANE, W.Va. — Spring Valley scored in five of their seven innings at the plate and received an effective outing from junior pitcher Madison Pitts to defeat MSAC rival Hurricane, 8-1 Thursday evening.
Pitts went the distance in the circle, one night after tossing ten innings in a 4-2 win over St. Albans. Pitts struck out nine batters and allowed just four hits.
“She throws everything well. She is one of the top pitchers in the state. You expect great outings,” said Spring Valley head coach Mick Osburn. “We have been working her kind of hard lately. She threw ten innings last night then came out and threw seven today. She missed some spots but she rebounded well.”
The Timberwolves, who are ranked first in the initial MetroNews H.S. Coaches poll, scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings to build a 3-0 lead. Hurricane received an RBI single from Carson Bailes in the bottom of the fourth inning to trim their deficit to 3-1.
However, Spring Valley busted the game open with three runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. The Timberwolves collected eight hits in the final two frames.
“I talked to them about pitch selection. Hurricane’s pitcher did a nice job of keeping us off balance a little bit early. But once we decided on what pitches we were swinging at and going after, that kind of led to better swings at the plate.”
Spring Valley (7-1) received multi-hit games from Brooklyn Osburn, Kate Spry, Kennedy Davis and Annessa Robson. The Timberwolves are the only unbeaten team in MSAC play at 5-0.
“We want the ultimate goal. We want to win state. We’ve got to win the conference, sectionals and regionals and all that to get there. The job is not done. But I am very satisfied with where we are at right now.”
Kenzie Kessel, Kylie Bailey, Elise Pye and Bailes recorded base hits for the Redskins (5-4).