James River, Bath playoff for PD title and Region C berth
The James River softball team will play Bath County in a playoff game for the Pioneer District season championship Monday in Covington.
River was rained out of a game with Craig County last week but got it in Tuesday evening at JRHS. The Lady Knights beat Craig 5-1 to force the playoff. Meanwhile, Bath had one more game to play as well before it became official that the Chargers and River were indeed tied for the top spot in the regular season. Coming into the week both had just one loss, splitting in their head-to-head series.
Taylor Statome waits her turn at bat for River. Photo by Brian Hoffman
The tournament is scheduled to begin next Monday, but the top two seeds won’t play until Wednesday, May 26. Craig County will host the Pioneer girls softball tournament this year.
Jessica Simmons and Haley Shotwell struck out 14 batters between them when they shutout Craig Tuesday night.
They got offensive help from Hailey Cook’s RBI triple and Chelsea Rodriquez and Hannah Morrow’s RBIs.
River played at Covington last Friday and took a 16-0 win in five innings. Shotwell and Simmons combined on a one hitter, as a Cougar reached on a bunt single in the fifth to break up the no-hit bid.
For the Knights, Conner Sprinkle, Taylor Statome and Shotwell all had two hits. Sprinkle drove in three runs as well and Casey Hill had three RBIs and one hit.
Last Thursday at the Botetourt Sports Complex the Knights dropped a 2-1 non-district game to visiting Brookville, a Group AA school from Lynchburg. The Knights left the bases loaded in the first, then the Bees came buzzing back with two runs in the top of the second, and that’s all they would need. Haily Cook had two hits for River and Dee Seemann knocked in the Knights’ only run.
Shotwell and Simmons again combined their efforts on the mound, fanning 10 and allowing just four hits. Shotwell pitched the first five innings and Simnons finished up.
“We wanted to face some good pitching before the playoffs,” said River coach John Shotwell.
River is 16-4 overall and 9-1 in the Pioneer.
