BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PIKEVILLE — The Martin County softball All Stars played in Pike County’s Queen of the Mountains tournament last week. Below is a recap of tournament action.
MC vs Pikeville – The Martin County All Stars took on Pikeville in their first game of pool play on June 19. MC brought home the 10-8 win after Layla Cline turned a double play to cap the night off.
Kenleigh Estep took the batter’s box at leadoff and took a free walk to first base. The feisty runner stole her way to third before toying with the pitcher. She slid into home for the first score of the game on a wild pitch.
Cline rounded the bases and snuck into home on a dropped third strike pitch.
Kylie Wright took a free base and stole her way around the horn for a third score. JaLynn McGinnis followed that up with the same order of events.
Brooklyn Rush and Emily Mooney saw four balls pass through the box. With both runners on, a pitch squeezed by the Pikeville catcher, and Rush scored for the fifth run to end the top of the first inning.
Pikeville responded with another five runs to even the score.
Alice Mae Gilkey, Kaylee Runyon, and Carolyn Dalton loaded the bases with Paisley Mooney up to bat.
Gilkey scored on a passed pitch and Gabby Mann took a free bag to score Dalton.
With three ducks on a pond, Cline obliterated a triple to center to score all three runners and send the other team up to bat with the five-run-per-inning rule.
After Pikeville had scored three runs in their at-bat, Sarah McCoy struck out a batter.
With a runner sitting on first, a hard grounder finds its way to Cline between first and second. She chased down the runner for a tag-out and gathered herself before throwing to McGinnis at first for the double play to end the game.
MC vs Johnson County – Martin County didn’t bode as well against the eventual champion Johnson County on June 20 with a 12-1 loss.
McGinnis caught a pop-up at first base for an out to start things off. Estep sprinted to tag a dropped third strike batter for the second out. McCoy fired a pitch past a JC batter and caught her swinging for a third out.
Martin County held Johnson County to only two runs.
In the bottom of the third, Emily Mooney chased down a bouncer at shortstop and fired to McGinnis at first for an out. JC managed to add five more runs.
Martin County finally jumped on the board after Kaylee Runyon stole her way all around the bases into home.
Gabby Mann and Hope Dials managed to get on base, but the All-Stars couldn’t convert and dropped a loss.
MC vs Belfry – With temperatures nearing 90 degrees on Saturday morning, following a 9 o’clock game the night prior, Martin County stayed cold on the scoreboard and fell to Belfry 12-1 in tournament play.
Cline was the lone scorer for Martin County, belting out a line drive past the Belfry shortstop for a double.
With the pitcher napping, she tiptoed to third base.
She inched her way down the baseline and the catcher took the bait. Her throw went into the outfield and allowed Cline to score at home.
A double play from Martin County’s Estep and Rush in the following inning wouldn’t be enough to make the comeback in the sweltering heat.
