Riverside closed out a successful spring trip to Myrtle Beach with a doubleheader sweep on Friday.
The Beavers, who opened the trip on Wednesday with a 1-0 loss to Beaver High School, a defending Pennsylvania state champion, bounced back with a sweep of Greenbrier Christian (Va.) and Cheraw (S.C.) on Thursday, and then they beat Louisa County (Va.) and Socastee (S.C.) on Friday.
“It was great,” said Riverside coach Bill Ross of the trip. “You never know how it’s going to go down there because you don’t know a lot of these teams but we’re absolutely ecstatic to get out 4-1.”
Grace Fisher led the Beavers to a 9-0 win over Louisa County in Friday’s first game. She continued her dominance in the circle by allowing just three hits in seven shutout innings and she struck out 13 batters.
Fisher pitched in three games in South Carolina. She allowed 11 hits and just one run in 20 innings of work with 37 strikeouts. On the season, she is 4-0 with 46 strikeouts in 26 innings and has allowed just two runs.
“Grace is just being Grace,” Ross said. “She’s been what we hoped she would be this year.”
Kayla Bobeczko led the Beavers at the plate against Louisa County. She was 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored and two runs batted in. Fisher and Amanda Kolar also doubled in the game and Milana McCaleb hit a triple. Emma Kovalchuk, Delaney Keith, and Annaliese Davis also had hits.
Keith’s was an inside-the-park home run when she smoked a ball down the right-field line and beat the throw to the plate.
Davis, a freshman, picked up her second win of the season in Riverside’s 12-5 victory over Socastee.
She allowed five runs on seven hits and struck out five.
“It was great, especially for our freshmen, to get two starts,” Ross said. “We were able to get Davis two wins.”
Freshman Emi Jeras started at catcher in the second game and hit a double and knocked in two runs.
McCaleb was 3-for-4 with an inside-the-park home run, three runs scored, and an RBI.
Kolar was locked in and finished the second game 3-for-5 with two runs scored and five RBI. She hit a double and a triple.
“The key to our success in the second game was definitely our hitting the first inning,” Kolar said. “It allowed us to play more loose throughout the game and enjoy our last game in Myrtle.”
Riverside finished that game with 16 hits.
Maren Kelly was 3-for-4 with a double and Kovalchuk and Keith both had two hits. Meghan Lehner, Allison Buttari, and Jeras each finished with one.
“The other girls coming up with big hits is huge for our team,” Kolar said. “They stepped up well for us in important situations. Obviously, our big hitters aren’t going to be on every game, so them stepping up and getting those hits were huge.”
Riverside returns to Ohio riding a four-game winning streak and playing with a lot of confidence behind Fisher, who has been dominant in the circle.
“The run we had down here is a huge confidence booster moving forward,” Kolar said. “We know the competition was great and how we won four games against the harder competition makes us feel really good. Even with our one loss, we fought extremely well against a Virginia Tech commit and made it a really fun game to play. We didn’t see it as a loss, but more of a great way to get better.”
