I am super proud of the ladies. We held perennial power Radford to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation. Unfortunately, near the end of the 2nd half we lost our starting left fullback, Bre Shumate, who dislocated her shoulder as the result of an illegal tackle. At that point, our girls were not worried about the game as much as their teammate. Radford snuck one in for the 2-1 win. We played with great character tonight!
Head Coach Rick Nester entered Thursday night with his team at 9-0 and having held their last two opponents scoreless but this time around the team needed every strike available in scratching out a 2-1 Three Rivers District victory over Radford.
The Lady Bobcats plated one early run against Senior Emma Leath and while Carroll County was getting good swings in almost every inning they could not plate the game tying run.
” Emma’s pitching and our defense kept us in the game tonight,” said Nester. ” The number of times that they would get a runner in scoring position with no outs only to have her then strike out the side kept us within sight of them.”
Leath (10-0) would end the eight inning contest with 18 strikeouts and only six other putouts for the entire game. The career high in K’s takes her career mark to 620.
As dominant as Leath was in the circle, the team headed to the top of the seventh inning trailing 1-0. After the first two Lady Cavaliers were retired, Nester sent Carlie Beamer up to the plate as a pinch hitter and she quickly had two strikes. CCHS was actually as close to their first defeat as possible when Beamer singled to left field to keep the team afloat.
Laiken Burnett went back into the game to run for Beamer. Madison Coleman reached on an infield single and the game tying run scored when Radford committed an error on the ground ball hit by Holly Miller that would have ended the contest.
Leath once again took care of business in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the affair into extra innings. The rule in the extra innings is that the player that recorded the final out in the previous inning starts out at second base. Addie Greene was standing in scoring position and Nester went to a small ball attack immediately.
Leath successfully bunted her over to third base and Katherine Lindamood brought her into score on a squeeze bunt. Having their first lead of the night at 2-1 the team still needed three outs and the Lady Bobcats would also start with a runner in scoring position and the heart of their order coming to the plate.
Leath would once again record three consecutive strikeouts to close out the night.
” I am really proud of how hard we battled tonight,” added Nester. “We haven’t played from behind very often this season and they kept at it right to the very end.”
Or in this case, as close as you can come to the very end.
Carroll County will have minimal time to savor their come from behind conquest as they return to action Friday night on The Hill. Galax comes to town for a 6:00pm first pitch in a Varsity only evening.
CCHS defeated Radford 20-5 in the Junior Varsity contest held to open the evening.
Carroll County Girls Varsity Tennis won 9-0 against Galax which brings them to 2-0.
The Galax girls played very well and had phenomenal attitudes in each of their matches.
Emma Vernon #1 won 8-5
Erika McKenzie #2 won 8-2
Alexis Boatman #3 won 8-0
Khloe Akers #4 won 8-1
Maiya Caudill #5 won 8-4
Tiffany Cruise #6 won 8-2
Emma and Erika won doubles 8-3
Alexis and Khloe won doubles 8-6
Maiya and Tiffany won doubles 8-1
Blessed to be coaching such great young ladies!
From Forrest :
I don’t have stats on jv but Jv played a great team game (5-0 victory) with multiple different players scoring or assisting. It was a big time win for them considering they lost to galax the first time playing each other.
Varsity had a hard fought 3-3 draw. Goals were scored by Davis Reitzel (2) and Alexis Ruiz (1). Assists by Yahir Ruiz, Oliver Lopez, and Davis Reitzel. The Varsity boys played their tails off and gave everything they had and we are very very proud of both teams
From a reporter stand point that loves good soccer, this was a fun back and forth game. Two teams battling it out. An intense rivalry that ended in a 3-3 tie. Both teams really left everything on the field and it was great to see the teams hugging and letting everything go at the final whistle!!! Good luck to both teams as they are getting ready for the postseason run!!!
Great youth night turnout and it was awesome to see theee of the players from our record setting 1999 Boys team!!!!
The term we like to use when we try something for the first time here in Carroll County is a Test Balloon 🎈.
This coming Monday night we are trying hard to test the theory of Sponsorship for a Night of Soccer ⚽️.
Both our Boys 👦 and Girls 👧 programs are playing on the Pitch at a High Level right now but are having trouble drawing fans to their Home matches.
One of the obvious issues is that eight other teams wearing our School 🏫 Colors are also competing during the Spring months.
There are four main reasons that someone might not attend a CCHS Soccer game –
#1- Already busy on that night 🌙
#2 – Don’t have a natural interest in the game of Soccer.
#3 – Don’t have an extra $7.00 per person to purchase tickets 🎟
#4 – Some combination of items 1-3
Forrest Johnson will be celebrating Senior Night 🌙 so here’s a chance to share in that ceremony
Eight good reasons right there !
The marketing tool we are trying to take out for a test spin in this –
Find a local group or business that would be interested in Sponsoring a game, which in turn would make the match free for all spectators. How does this work ? Said business, which Monday will be OneofUs.Care writes ✍ a check to the High School 🏫 to cover the approximated amount of gate receipts.
The sponsor would be the focal point the entire night 🌙 and would be encouraged to pass out information or free promo gifts 🎁.
They would receive a game ball to take home 🏡 with them at the end of the night 🌙. In a perfect World 🌎 there would be Spirit contests between the various teams and groups within the School with the top group receiving recognition for having the most members attending.
Our Girls 👧 Soccer team will be up at Alleghany that night and Baseball ⚾️ will be playing at home. But as of know everyone else will have the night off and don’t forget about all of the Coaches and Athletes from the Fall and Winter Sports… Here’s a chance to show School 🏫 Spirit without it costing anything but time.
Everyone out there who is part of a group that feels their group deserves a bit more acknowledging, here’s your chance to help out another group !
All you have to do Monday to be a part of this latest Test Balloon 🎈 is make it to Tommy Thompson Field before Halftime of the Junior Varsity match and admission is FREE!
The charge of the normal $7.00 will resume afterwards.
Forrest Johnson, Ben Tickle, Jeremy Pruitt and their Assistant Coaches have something to be proud of and let’s see 👀 if we can help showcase it for them all !
We will be loading up the vehicles today as five of our teams will be heading to the Land of Bobcats.
If you can’t make it up to Radford, the Battling Ben Tickles will be hosting the Lady Bobcats at Tommy Thompson Field beginning at 6pm !
Notes 📝 – Jabin Talley will have to sit out of his Top Seed spot due to a lingering Blister.
Emma Leath starts the night 🌙 at 602 Strikeouts
Ashlyn Newman starts the night 🌙 at 65 goals
A.S.P.N on The Hill 