Well-rounded Cavs get Petersburg in first round
May 23—All season long, Greenbrier West has shown the ability to win any type game.
Outslug opponents? The Cavaliers boast a .394 team batting average and have scored 301 runs in 25 games.
Close games? They can do that, too. Four of their wins have come by one or two runs.
That type of range comes in handy on the big stage, which is where the Cavaliers will find themselves Wednesday when they take on Petersburg in the first round of the Class A state softball tournament. The game will start at about 12:15 p.m., 30 minutes after completion of the other semifinal game between St. Marys and defending state champion Wahama (9:45 a.m.).
The games will be played on The Rock at South Charleston's Little Creek Park.
Greenbrier West (23-2) will be playing in its first state tournament since making its debut there in 2019.
The Cavaliers fell to Clay-Battelle and Wheeling Central.
They had success right out of the gate this season, winning their first 16 games. Their only losses were to Pendleton County (11-5) and Class AAA Woodrow Wilson (4-0), both on the road.
Along the way, the Cavaliers have scored double-digit runs 15 times, including two games of 21 runs and one with 20. They have averaged 12.0 runs per game.
The leading hitters have been sophomore Preslee Treadway and freshman Brilee Redden.
Treadway has team-highs in batting average at .507 (73-for-92), home runs (7) and runs batted in (40). Redden is right behind her with a .506 average (81-for-94) and also has 11 doubles, to go with 29 runs batted in and a team-leading 39 runs scored.
Brooklyn Adkins and Maddie Fields both have five triples. Fields is credited with a team-high 25 stolen bases and has not been thrown out.
Emma Ames is batting .443 and Julia Herndon .368.
As proficient as Redden has been with the bat, she has made a name for herself as a pitcher. She carries a 12-2 record and 1.20 earned run average into the tournament. She has 169 strikeouts to 35 walks in 93.1 innings.
She, Michaela Alley and Kyndall Taylor have combined for 10 shutouts and held opponents to 2.76 runs per game.
Petersburg (25-8) advanced by beating Doddridge County two games to one in the Region 2 championship series. The Vikings lost the first game before taking the next two.
Wednesday's winner will face the St. Marys-Wahama winner 30 minutes after completion of an elimination game between the losing teams that starts at 4:45 p.m.
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5
