Kaiti White tosses 2nd career perfect game; Lady Lions defeat LC
Fairfield junior Kaiti White threw her second career perfect game, and the Lady Lions opened the 2018 Southern Hills Athletic Conference schedule from where they left off from a season ago with a 13-0 win over the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs, Tuesday night.
White threw her second career perfect game with brilliant defense from her Lady Lion teammates behind her. Both first baseman Lyndee Spargur and catcher Lauren Arnold made diving catches, and White finished with nine strikeouts. The Lady Lion offense also had 10 hits against their Highland County rival.
White (2-0) was the winning pitcher for Fairfield. The five innings in the circle began with a first inning that saw the first batter of the game hit the ball right back to White for the first out. From there, White struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
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In the second, White forced a ground out to first base, another hit back to her at the pitcher’s circle and a strikeout. The third inning saw a line out to first base, followed with two more strikeouts.
With the perfect game still intact, White struck out the lead-off batter of the fourth inning, forced a pop up to the catcher and followed with another strikeout, her seventh strikeout of the game. In the fifth and final inning, White struck out the lead-off batter, forced a groundout to the shortstop and ended the game with her ninth strikeout of the SHAC contest. All nine strikeouts by White were swinging third strikes.
At the plate for the Lady Lions, Molly Thackston and Layla Hattan both had two hits to lead the offense as eight different Fairfield batters reached base.
After a scoreless first inning, the Fairfield Lady Lions (1-0, 2-0) dented the scoreboard with three runs in the top of the second inning. Emily Williams led off the inning and was safe on a throwing error and advanced to second base. Hattan grounded out to short and advanced Williams to third base. Arnold was hit by a pitch, and courtesy runner Hayleigh Lowe entered the game to run for Arnold. Lowe stole second base and Williams scored on the play. Thackston singled to centerfield to drive in Lowe. Madi Fox was safe on an error and Thackston scored on the play for the three-run lead.
Fairfield scored four more runs in the top of the third inning. Spargur singled and Carli Reiber followed with a double to the fence in left-centerfield, driving in Spargur. One out later, Williams singled up the middle, advancing Reiber to third base. Hattan singled to centerfield to drive in Reiber as Williams advanced to third base. Hattan stole second base and Arnold grounded out to score Williams, with Hattan advancing to third base. Thackston singled to drive in Hattan to complete the scoring for the inning.
The Lady Lions finished the scoring with six runs in the fourth inning. Fox reached first on an infield single to lead off the inning. Spargur singled to advance Fox to second base, and Reiber grounded out to the right side of the infield to move Fox and Spargur one base each. White followed with a single to drive in Fox and Spargur, as White took second base on the throw to the plate.
Williams was safe on an error, and Hattan singled to score Allissa Hester (running for White) as Williams moved to second base. Arnold singled to advance Williams to third base and Hattan to second base. Thackston was safe on a fielder’s choice as Williams scored. Megan Gragg was safe on an error as Hattan and Lowe scored.
Leading hitters for the Lady Lions were: Thackston (2-for-3, one run, three RBI), Hattan (2-for-3, two runs, two RBI), Spargur (1-for-3, two runs), Reiber (1-for-3, double, one run, one RBI), White (1-for-3, one run, two RBI), Williams (1-for-3, three runs), Arnold (1-for-2, two runs, one RBI) and Fox (1-for-2, one run).
Serah Whitacre (0-2) suffered the loss for Lynchburg-Clay. She finished with two strikeouts.