The Chapmanville Regional High School softball team got good hitting and pitching on Friday evening in its Lady Tigers Invitational game with Buffalo.
The effort was good enough for the Lady Tigers to score an 8-2 win over the Class A No. 1-ranked Bison at the CRHS softball field.
Chapmanville improved to 8-2 on the season with the victory while Buffalo dropped to 11-2.
Class AA No. 2 Chapmanville was scheduled to play No. 1 and defending state champion Ritchie County on Saturday in the invitational. The Lady Tigers were also set to play against Pikeview.
A total of 23 games were scheduled to be played in the entire tourney, using all three softball diamonds in Chapmanville, including the two fields at Chapmanville Middle School.
Senior Allison Evans pitched the complete game win for the Lady Tigers on Friday night. She went seven innings and allowed just two runs and four hits with five strikeouts and two issued walks. Buffalo hurler Ali Burdette was tagged with the loss. She pitched six innings and gave up eight runs and eight hits with six walks and four strikeouts.
Talya Berry and Heather Nagy led the Lady Tigers at the plate. Berry, Chapmanville’s DP, was 2-for-2 with two RBI. First baseman Nagy was 2-for-2 with a double and three RBI.
The Lady Tigers teetered on mercying the Bison, taking an 8-2 lead in the fourth with Nagy’s sacrifice fly to right. Chapmanville, though, could not score any more runs to get to the eight-run mercy rule margin.
“It was one of those games where we put them away but we didn’t,” Chapmanville coach Ronnie Ooten said. “Then we just didn’t hit and were just pecking at the ball. We’ve got some kids struggling with the bats and some that are doing real good with the bat. But I was really happy to get the win.”
Buffalo took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as leadoff batter Katie Higginbotham singled, took second on Hannah Boyer’s sacrifice bunt, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Chelsey Parkins’ RBI groundout. Higginbotham would led Buffalo at the plate as she was 3-for-4.
Chapmanville then went ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the first. Jenna Evans tied the game 1-1 with an RBI groundout to first. Catcher Alyssa Bailey then bunted home a run to make it 2-1 before Nagy’s RBI single made it 3-1.
The Lady Tigers then plated four more runs in the bottom of the second. Berry’s two-run single to center made it 5-1. Nagy then ripped a double to left to up the margin to 6-1. Bailey then singled and scored on a Buffalo error to put CRHS ahead 7-1.
Buffalo came back with a run in the top of the fourth as Parkins walked and later scored on a Chapmanville throwing error to make it 7-2.
Chapmanville’s run in the bottom half of the fourth then pushed the lead to 8-2.
The fifth and sixth innings were scoreless.
Allison Evans then sat down the Bison in the top of the seventh to preserve the win.
Buffalo committed four errors in the game. Chapmanville had just one.
Logan High School, which won 10-0 over Sissonville on Thursday during the first night of the Chapmanville tourney, was scheduled to play Point Pleasant and Ritchie County on Friday night in the invitational.
Man High School, which lost a pair of games to Herbert Hoover (4-1) and Poca (2-1) on Thursday night, was scheduled to close out Lady Tigers Invitational play on Saturday evening with a game against Point Pleasant.







