The Mathews High School varsity softball team picked up two wins last week, crushing Warhill in the Lady Devils’ home opener, 18-0, and winning a thrilling 7-6 game against Nandua in a rematch of last year’s Region A championship game.
Mathews had little trouble last Thursday with the Warhill Lions, scoring 10 runs in the first inning on the way to a five-inning victory. Lindsay Crigler pitched a no-hitter. Top hitters were Crigler, 4-for-4; Virginia Scatchard (three hits) and Sharese Jarvis and Kaitlin Eriksen with two hits apiece.
Mathews took a three-hour bus ride on Saturday to the Eastern Shore to face Nandua. Both teams returned all nine starters from last year’s regional title game.
Mathews jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Lady Warriors fired back with three to take the edge. Mathews retook the lead in the top of the second with two more runs, with the Warriors tying it up, 4-4, in the bottom of the inning.
In the fourth inning, Mathews scored two more runs off an error and a sacrifice bunt which put the Devils ahead, 6-4. Going into the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Devils still held the lead, but several errors resulted in two runs for Nandua.
At the end of seven the teams were tied, 6-6, sending the game into extra innings. After battling through nine complete innings with neither team scoring, the Lady Devils got things started in the top of the tenth inning when Crigler crushed a ball over the centerfield fence to put Mathews ahead, 7-6. Mathews held Nandua hitless in the bottom of the tenth for the hard-fought win.
A major factor was errors; the Lady Devils made six errors which resulted in four unearned runs for the Lady Warriors. Hitters for Saturday’s game were Lindsay Collins with three hits, Jarvis and Crigler with two, and Eriksen, Scatchard, and Taylor Denton with one each.
Jayvee Devils
The jayvee Lady Devils also picked up a win against Warhill, crushing the Lions by a 30-1 margin. The jayvee girls also scored a 15-3 victory over Northumberland on Tuesday.
Major hitters for Mathews in last Thursday’s Warhill game were Hailey Abernathy with three hits and Carol Bell, Mallory Sanger and Hannah Rowe with two apiece.
In the Northumberland game, Mathews jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, holding on through errors and by using bat power for the win.
Amanda Miller and Bell had three hits each and Rowe, Bailey Kujawski, Allison Foster, Harley Trammell, and Hunter Thomas had two hits apiece.