Lady Beavers beat Indy 9-2 in regional softball opener

May 14—BLUEFIELD — The Bluefield softball team is one win away from punching its ticket to the WVSSAC Class AA state softball tournament.

The Lady Beavers (16-5) picked up the critical opening-game victory in this year's Region III best-of-three series, beating visiting Independence 9-2 at Bluefield High School, on Monday.

Bluefield travels to Coal City to face the Lady Patriots in today's second game of the series.

Should Independence pull out a win today, the series will return to the Lady Beavers' home field for Game 3.

Bluefield pitcher Izzy Smith went the distance for the victory, striking out nine and walking two over seven innings. She allowed two earned runs off of five hits.

The Lady Pats' Kendra Spurlock jolted the visitors into a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning with a two-run homer. Kassidy Bradbury had a couple of hits while Alli Hypes had a double.

Indy's offensive damage was limited to Spurlock's attention-getting big hit, however. After that, Bluefield's lineup came alive, plating four runs in the fifth inning and five in the sixth while Smith settled down and pitched three consecutive shutout innings to seal the 1-0 series advantage.

Bluefield's Madison Lawson paced the Lady Beavers' 11-hit attack, going 2-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs on the day.

Grace Richardson went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs while Abby Richardson went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Taylor Mabry went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, Smith went 2-for-4, Audra Rockness had a single and a run scored and Abby Matthews scored two runs.

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