Lady Tigers top Liberty in sectional game
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The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley
Elkins High School's Dacey Arbogast slides into second as Liberty's Trisha Strother defends the base in sectional action Monday. The Lady Tigers won 5-1.
ELKINS -- Dacey Arbogast pitched a complete-game one-hitter as Elkins stayed alive in the Class AA, Region II, Section 1 tournament with a 5-1 win over Liberty Thursday at Betty Heckel Field.
With the win, the Lady Tigers (11-14) remained alive in the double-elimination tournament and will travel to Lincoln for a 6 p.m. contest today. The loser of that game will be eliminated, while the winner will face Bridgeport on Wednesday.
The lone dent in Arbogast's armor came in the first inning when Madison Smith led off the contest with a double to left. She later scored on an error to give the Lady Mountaineers (5-25) an early 1-0 lead. Arbogast went on to retire the side in five of the next six innings. She finished with three strikeouts and walked just one batter.
"Dacey pitched really well and our defense behind her did a great job," said Elkins coach Sona Delawder. "She forced them (Liberty) to hit a lot of ground balls and our infield was consistently making the plays."
Elkins scored a pair of runs in the fourth inning to go in front for good. Morgan Bowers, who finished with three hits, got the inning started with a double to right field. Gracee Huffman singled in Bowers and later scored on an error.
The Lady Tigers came back with three more runs the very next inning as Kaitlin Stone got things started with one of her two doubles in the game. After Baylee Shiflett reached on an error, Bowers singled to right-center field to score Stone and make it 3-1. Shiflett then scored on a double-steal and the fifth run crossed on an RBI groundout from Arbogast.
"It took us a little bit to get the bats going," said Delawder. "Morgan (Bowers) stepped up at the plate and has been very consistent as of late, and Kaitlin (Stone) had a very good game with a couple of hits."
Haley Younkins took the loss for Liberty in six innings of work. She allowed six hits, struck out five and walked one.
Elkins will look to avenge a pair of losses at the hands of Lincoln earlier in the season. The Lady Tigers dropped a doubleheader against the Lady Cougars during the first week of the season, losing 17-5 and 8-7.
"We made a lot of errors in that first game we played against them (Lincoln) back in March," said Delawder. "The second game we played them much more competitive and we're hoping tomorrow's game will be as well."