Mustangs cruise to victory

By Jason Pounds Daily Progress correspondent
Published: April 11, 2008

With all the recent games postponed due to rain, Monticello was eager to finally get on the field and play a game and it showed on Friday as the Mustangs cruised past Western Albemarle 13-1 in five innings.
The visitors put eight runs on the board in the first two innings to seize control early on and never look back. After taking a 3-0 lead after one, Monticello (7-3, 2-1 JD) used a bases-clearing, three-run triple from catcher Whitney Lipscomb to break the game wide open before finishing off the Warriors in a contest shortened by the 10-run rule.
“We’ve been working with her a lot on her swing,” said Monticello coach Beth Humphrey of Lipscomb, who went 3 for 3 with five RBI. “She’s made a couple of changes and she’s getting confidence. She knows when she gets up there that she can swing a hot bat and she hit the ball hard tonight.”
The Mustangs added another run in the third and four more in the fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run single from pitcher Victoria Scott, who helped her own cause with the hit up the middle. Scott went 1 for 2 at the plate and scored two runs while holding Western at bay from the circle as well. Scott allowed only three hits while striking out 11 and walking six batters.
“Victoria threw the ball well in the circle,” Humphrey said. “She had a little bit of a control problem but she would bounce right back and come right after the next batter.’
Though Scott only gave up three hits, her six free passes allowed Western Albemarle to load the bases twice in the first three innings, but the Warriors failed to capitalize.
“To beat a team like Monticello you’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity and we had the bases loaded twice with less than two outs and didn’t get squat,” said Western coach Fred Weinberg. “When you get all those runners on base and don’t get them in, you’re in trouble.”
Western tacked on its only run in the bottom of the fifth when Lashaunda Sims scored on a wild pitch. Sims went 2 for 2 on the night and Kelly Miller recorded the only other hit for the Warriors.
The Mustangs scored their 13 runs on only nine hits thanks to nine walks by the WAHS pitching staff. Lydia Newoth, Brenna Johnston and Chelsea Henderson all scored two runs each for Monticello, which will travel to William Monroe on Monday at 5 p.m.
Western will be back in action Tuesday against Charlottesville at 5 p.m.