Kittens find stride

By AARON SNYDER - The Independent

ASHLAND April 21, 2008 11:32 pm

— The Kittens scratched their way to three runs Monday night, which was more than enough with Katelyn Miller on the mound.
Ashland (10-5) took down Boyd County, 3-0, at Ashland Softball Complex as Miller fanned nine batters and gave up just one hit in the shutout victory.
“We know that whenever we get two or three runs, we’re typically going to be in any ball game with her,” said Ashland coach Dave Miller.
After allowing the Lady Lions’ only hit, which came off the bat of Katie Hunter, Miller sat down three straight on strikes in the fourth inning.
“She’s just getting better every game,” coach Miller said. “She’s getting better command of her locations. She changed speeds a lot, working the ball in, out, up and down. When she can hit her spots, she’s tough.”
Boyd County coach Geoff Stewart said his team had difficulty picking up Miller’s changeup.
“(Miller) hit her spots and kept us off balance with her changeup,” Stewart said. “We told (our team) over and over to let it go. She wasn’t throwing it over for a strike for the most part. But she’s got a good one and she kept us off stride.”
Boyd County (9-8) got a fine pitching performance as well. Kelli Garvin gave up only one earned run in six innings.
She allowed two Kittens to reach base in each of the first two innings, but was able to get out of both jams.
In the third inning, Nancy Rice supplied Ashland’s first hit, a softly hit infield single that drove in Whitney Phillips, who had walked.
Stewart said it all came down to execution.
“We just didn’t execute,” Stewart said. “They executed and made plays and we did not. You have a couple walks and a couple errors and the game changes. When (Ashland) got their baserunners, they executed. They moved those runners over and scored.”
Phillips scored again for Ashland in the fifth after she reached on an error. After stealing second base, she was able to score on a throwing error.
Rachel Amburgey accounted for the Kittens’ run in the sixth, scoring on a wild pitch after reaching on a walk. Garvin allowed five walks in the game.
The Kittens made one early error, but the defense was flawless for the remainder of the game.
“We can get by with one (error) a game,” Miller said. “We did three out of four things exceptional: fielding, pitching and baserunning.”
With the other essential being hitting, the Kittens may be able to afford to leave that one out if Miller is able to allow only three baserunners every outing, as she did on Monday.
BOYD COUNTY 000 000 0 — 0 1 3
ASHLAND 001 011 x — 3 2 1
Garvin and Smith; Miller and Amburgey. W—Miller. L—Garvin. 2B—Ashland, Osborne.

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