Carroll County hosted Alleghany in their biannual double header Tuesday night and after 3:23 of total time and 12 tension filled innings, the Lady Cavaliers and Lady Cougars ended the night having secured one victory each.

Alleghany was down to their final out in the five inning opener when Bryce Leitch singled in the tying run in to knot the opener at 1-1. The visitors went on to plate the two deciding runs in the top of the seventh inning to secure the 3-1 victory.

Carroll County switched to being the visitors in the night cap and captured the equalizer by a final score of 6-4.

The large crowd was on the edge of their seats pretty much from start to finish as both clubs brought everything they had from start to finish.

In the opening game, Emma Leath and Addyson Neff were locked into quite the pitchers duel from start to finish. The effort from Neff was a bit more hidden as eight Lady Cavaliers reached base but only one did so by way of a base hit. Natalie Burress led off the second inning with a sharp single but was stranded at third base, one of numerous opportunities to plate runs that were missing the key base hit.

CCHS was able to plate a run in the bottom of the third inning after Addie Greene reached base on an error ahead of Leath drawing her second walk of the game.

Katherine Lindamood loaded the bases when she reached on the second error of the inning, giving the Cavs a bases loaded with no out situation. Emma Harman brought in Greene by reaching on a fielder’s choice to make it 1-0 but Neff worked her way out of the jam without further trouble.

Leath would protect the slim lead and started out the fifth and final inning with the eighth of nine strike outs before surrendering a single to Kinsey Middleton. One out later, Leitch tied the game at 1-1, sending the contest to extra innings.

Carroll County put two runners in scoring position in the six but both were left stranded and Alleghany would plate two unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning to take game one.

Both Neff and Leath went the distance and each recorded nine strike outs in doing so. Leath allowed six hits and one earned run while Neff surrendered one hit and no earned runs.

Carroll County made up for lost time in Game 2 while facing Tyra Rose in the circle. Greene figured in all three runs the Cavs scored in the first innings. The Freshman walked in the first and scored on a Lindamood RBI single and then in the second inning her two RBI single plated both Brooke Webb and Holly Miller.

AHS struck back in the bottom of the third inning, plating two runs when Abbie Fridley stroked a single to plate Leitch (infield single) and Kaylee Nicely (HBP).

The score remained 3-2 until an explosive fifth inning when an additional five runs crossed home plate and four more were left on base.

CCHS doubled its run total in the top of the inning with the big hit belonging to Laiken Burnett. Harman led off with a single and stole her way to third base. Lindamood followed with a walk and stolen base, bringing Burress to the plate. The freshman struck out but made it to first base on a dropped ball and Harman scored on the play. Carlie Beamer ripped a line shot but right at the centerfielder and Burnett followed with a two run double down the third base line to push the lead out to 6-2.

Alleghany was not going to go quietly into the night. Eight Lady Cougars batted in the bottom of the fifth with five consecutive batters reaching on an odd collection of singles. With the lead down to 6-4 and the bases loaded, Leath retired the final batters on infield pop ups.

The Lady Cavaliers now sit at 12-1 on the season with seven games remaining. Six of the seven will be Three Rivers District play where the team currently sits at 5-1 and in control of its own destiny.

The team still faces three contests that need to be rescheduled and will begin that process this Thursday night by traveling over to Floyd County.

Leath finished the night with 15 strike outs, bringing her career total up to 645. The record number sits at 694 from Sydney Nester.

The Junior Varsity fell in their double header at Alleghany but Bayliegh Allen connected for a Home Run in both games.

Holly Miller standing on second base in the fifth inning…

Photo 📷 credit – Kelly Hawks

The dust had barely settled on the Thursday night 2-1 thrilling victory at Radford when Head Coach Rick Nester filled out his lineup card for the Galax tilt back on The Hill.

The veteran coach penned in Emma Leath to bat second and head out to the pitching circle and his Senior didn’t disappoint. Ten strikeouts and no hits later, Carroll County toppled Galax 3-0 to move to 11-0 on the season.

The performance followed a pregame ceremony in which Leath caught a ceremonial First Pitch from her Father, Travis Leath.

The double digit strike out performance leaves the right hander at 630 in her persuit of the School record of 694.

Carroll County collected 9 hits against a pair of Galax pitchers but never picked up the clutch hit that would have broken the game out of reach. Emma Harman , Brooke Webb and Madison Coleman each finished with two base hits to lead the offense and Holly Miller made the one remarkable play behind Leath to protect the no-no.

Innings one through five were nothing short of a pitching clinic from Leath as Galax sent 15 batters to the plate and all 15 headed back to the dugout. Nine were by strikeout and six retired by the infield but things changed in the top of the sixth.

Hylee Holt led off the inning with a line drive that was dropped for the lone error for the Cavaliers. One strikeout later Jayden Leonard sent a shot through the right side of the infield for what appeared to be the first base hit of the game but Miller charged the ball and fired it to second base for the put out. Leonard officially reached base on a fielders choice and Leath retired the final four batters with help coming from Brooke Webb in left field for the final out of the contest.

Carroll County scratched out single runs in the second, fourth and six innings with Harman crossing the plate the first two times and Natalie Burress adding the final run.

Harman led off the second inning with a single, promptly stole second base and took third on a wild pitch. Burress picked up the RBI by laying down a sacrifice bunt.

Harman singled again in the fourth inning and came around to score curtosey of a Madison Coleman RBI single.

Burress added some insurance by singling with one out and scoring on the second hit on the night by Webb.

The victory marks the start of the second half of the 20 game regular season. The Lady Cavaliers made the turn at a perfect 10-0 and now stand at 11-0 ahead of a scheduled double header against visiting Alleghany on Tuesday. The two teams split the double header last season at AHS.

The final few weeks of the season promise to be busy ones as the team remains three games down with one at Floyd County, one home to James River and one home to Pulaski County.

The recorded no-hitter was the second for Leath as Cavalier with both efforts coming against the Maroon Tide.

Photo Credit : Kelly Hawks

Carroll County Senior Emma Leath joined Sydney Nester in the 600 Strikeout club on her way to tossing her second consecutive complete game shutout as the Lady Cavaliers cruised to a 10-0 victory over Grayson County Monday night. The large crowd enjoyed the effort from start to finish as the team remained perfect on the season

Leath entered the game needing six to reach the mark and did it in style by picking up one in the first inning, two in the second inning and striking out the side in the third. The fact that the one that put her at 600 was the final out of the inning allowed for an extended window to celebrate the feat.

(Allen – this one I took from the press box with the ball in the air on the final strike, not meant for the bigger story).

Leath would add two more to her total to land at 602 as the Lady Cavs offense ended the game early by reaching the mercy rule lead of 10-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning. The final stat line for the complete game win was 8 K’s, 5 hits, 0 walks and 0 earned runs.

CCHS hit the ground running in the bottom of the first inning when the first three batters reached base and scored in a four run first frame. Addie Greene led off with a single and both Leath and Katherine Lindamood worked the court for walks to load the bases. One out later Isabella Norman lined a shot to centerfield that plated the first run and Laiken Burnett, Brooke Webb and Holly Miller each picked up one RBI in the rally that included 10 Cavaliers getting to the batters box.

Grayson County led off the second inning with three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs but Leath escaped with no damage, thanks in large part to the defense of Emma Harman and catcher Natalie Burress. Following a Blue Devil strikeout, Chasity Wilson sent a hard hit ball in the direction of Harman who made a clean play and fired the ball home where Burress corralled it on a short hop for the force out. Leath would snuff out the uprising with another strikeout, which turned out to be the first of four straight.

” That was a big play for us on both ends,” said Coach Rick Nester. ” Emma (Harman) getting to the ball and Natalie (Burress) making the great stab to finish it.”

No Blue Devil reached second base the remainder of the game while CCHS would go on to add runs in all five innings. The team recorded a second straight error-free effort that led to another shutout, following up the 9-0 victory Friday night at Patrick County.

The offense was opertunistic from start to finish, scoring 10 runs on just seven base hits. Discipline at the plate allowed the Lady Cavaliers to earn 10 walks in addition to reaching on one hit batter and two GCHS fielding errors. Greene, Leath and Harman each scored two runs while Miller collected two hits.

Carroll County rallied from down 8-2 in the Junior Varsity game to pull within 8-7 and had the tying run in scoring position before falling by that same score. Arizona Thompson scored three runs and Bayliegh Allen collected three base hits to lead the Cavaliers offense.

Carroll County (8-0) will travel up to Radford Thursday night and return to The Hill on Friday to host Galax at 6pm.

Photo Credit – Kelly Hawks

Carroll County Head Coach Rick Nester was smiling ear to ear after his Lady Cavaliers (7-0) remained perfect on the season after shutting out the host Blue Devils 6-0 Wednesday night in Independence.

” I actually used my time in between innings to let the team know just how proud of them I was,” said Nester. “We played team defense, taking care of business at every position.”

One play that Nester was pointing towards happened early on when first baseman Laiken Burnett charged to her right to field a ground ball and second baseman Emma Harman hustled over to take her throw at first base to record the out.

The team has fallen behind in regards to the schedule and have been reduced to playing roughly once a week for quite some time. They started this week with three games on the docket before yesterday with Floyd County became the latest contest to get pushed back.

The lack of opportunity to play live games has shown zero effect on the team at the plate or in the field. That was the case once again versus Grayson County as the team combined timely hitting with flawless defense behind a sparkling pitching performance from Senior Emma Leath.

Leath (7-0) once again tossed a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out seven. Nester added that only one ball was hit hard in seven innings and that his infield was up to every challenge.

The offense attack was also paced by Leath as she reached on a single four times in five at bats, scoring twice. Isabella Norman was one of a slew of hitters that went 2 of 4, driving in three runs, including a 2-run double that pushed the lead out to 6-0.

Holly Miller, Burnett and Harman each joined Norman in the two hit club as the team collected 14 hits on the night. The team scored three runs early and matched it with three runs late to erase any doubt about the outcome.

” The final score is just a little deceiving when you take into consideration how hard we hit the ball,” Nester added. ” It seemed that we were one hit away from pulling away in each inning.”

Carroll County is set to play at Patrick County on Friday evening but that came might be in jeopardy if the weather tomorrow delivers another stretch of prolonged rain. Mother Nature is the only thing slowing down the Lady Cavaliers..

Just a different look at the photo..

Allen will add a Box Score and here I will add a few pics sent along by Donna Nester.

While I didn’t get verification of the final score I do know that CCHS fell short in the Junior Varsity game.