So Indy head coach Ken Adkins went to pitcher Kenzie Pierce, the sophomore who beat Shady in last year’s sectional tournament, to get him out of the jam.
The Patriots yielded two runs and the lead in that spot but struck back in the bottom of the frame with two runs, powering their way past the Tigers 8-4 Thursday night in Shady Spring.
The win keeps the Patriots undefeated with regional wins over Greenbrier East, Ripley, PikeView and now Shady.
With the game hanging in the balance early the Patriots dodged a bullet by allowing just two of the four runners who scored to reach base, trailing just 3-2 after the frame. But after consecutive innings of Joyce quieting Indy’s bats, they exploded in the top of the fourth, collecting four hits and four runs to take the lead for good.
It was a charge led by the bottom half of the lineup which drove in five of the eight runs.
“I like our bottom (of the order),” Adkins said. “Acasia Cook might be batting like .600 coming in today after six games. We’ve got people at the bottom of our lineup leading the state and hitting, you know what I mean? Like it’s crazy. It’s two seniors, Savannah (Stanley) and Acasia. And you know, we’ve fuss and carried on over the years for them to work harder and do the things they needed to do, and they both cheered and I you know what I mean? I stay on them all the time about that stuff. But they’ve really been good to … they’ve come back with a different type attitude.”
Battling the cold, starting pitchers Joyce and Paytin Brehm yielded early runs with Indy’s Bella Lilly tagging Joyce for a two-run triple in first and Joyce answering with an RBI-double in the bottom of the frame.
Both retired the side in order through the second but in the third Shady found a successful approach at the plate.
A leadoff single from Reagan Lane and a fielder’s choice error allowed Shady’s first two runners to reach before Brehm fanned the No. 2 hitter for the first out. Peyton Raban was hit by a pitch to load the bases, bringing up Joyce and inducing the pitching change.
Joyce drew a walk to plate a run but Pierce limited the damage with an RBI groundout and a pop out to hold the Tigers in check.
“I don’t know if it’s who their pitches are, I think it’s just the name Indy is what gets to them,” Shady head coach Nikki Mays said. “It’s always been like that, even since I played. I think it’s just the name of who we’re playing. They get in the box a different way than what they do with everybody else. I don’t think it’s they can’t hit her. It’s in their heads more than anything.”
After striking out to open the fourth, the Patriots came to life and chased Joyce.
The rally started with a Brehm single and was followed by a Stanley walk. Emma Simpson tied the game with a double, followed by another from Cook that plated Simpson and Stanley. Kassidy Bradbury did the final honors, crushing the third double of the frame to push the lead to 6-3.
Stanley poured it on in the fifth with a two-run double to pushed the advantage to 8-4.
“I thought we struggled with Jenna a little bit early and she started off really well,” Adkins said. “I mean, had all of her pitches working. When she could throw the rise and the change up and kind of run the ball in on you at the screw she’s tough to hit. But I kept telling our kids, ‘If you’ll just take a few pitches, don’t chase bad pitches.’ Then they start coming back to the zone. When you look down in the middle we finally have a team that can hit.”
Shady’s bats struggled the rest of the way, producing just five hits over the last four innings, stranding 10 runners on the night.
“Kenzie just picked right up where she left off as far as these guys go and she kind of has their number,” Adkins said. “I don’t know what about it it is, but she kind of thrives in that. If you remember, she won two games in the section here last year. I could tell a difference in their whole demeanor when she started pitching, so I don’t know. But they’re a good team and we’ll still have to play to beat them. They can hit, they got some dangerous people in the lineup.
“I came in the game saying I was not gonna pitch to Jenna at all. I thought about just walking her for the season then my kids were like, ‘Come on coach don’t do that.’ And I still might do it for the rest of the season – she’s that kind of hitter that if you give her opportunity, she’s gonna get you. So, we were able to kind of pitch around her. That’s the thing that they have to figure out is you can pitch around Jenna and not give her anything to hit, and then there’s not much behind her.”
Bella Lilly, Stanley and Cook all drove in two runs each for the Patriots in the win while Emma Lilly finished with a pair of hits.
Joyce and Abigail Strugill drove in two runs each in the loss.
Pierce picked up the win in the circle scattering five hits over 4.2 innings of work.
