[Allsports#1]

Ashland 4 Cabell Midland (WV) 3
Ashland 10 Magoffin 0


Rocky Stanley The Independent
COALTON — After two rain-splattered days, Ashland and an impressive guest list finally got down to playing softball in the Kitten Spring Invitational on Saturday.

Megan Hensley homered in both of Ashland’s games, including a walk-off shot, as the Kittens beat Cabell Midland 4-3 and then blanked Magoffin County 10-0 in the first high school competition at the new Championship Fastpitch Athletic Complex.

“That’s awesome,” Ashland coach Dave Miller said of the sweep on the hill-top fields that he developed near the Boyd County Fairgrounds.

“We need to play more up here. We need to get the State Tournament,” Miller added with a laugh.

Ashland posted the only perfect record among six teams that participated in the event. Except for one game Thursday afternoon on the Ashland campus, everything else was washed out until Saturday.

Wet grounds also threatened the final day.

“At 7 this morning, we didn’t know if this would happen, so we’re thrilled,” Miller said. “Thanks to a plethora of people coming out to this complex to help, we were able to get the fields in condition to play.”

The Kittens, tied for 26th in the latest state coaches’ poll, and highly regarded Cabell Midland were deadlocked 3-3 when Hensley came to bat to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning.

“I hadn’t had a hit all day,” Hensley said. “I was thinking, ‘Let’s get something going.’”

So she did, driving a pitch just fair over the left-field fence for the game-winner.

“I thought it would be foul,” Hensley said of her first career walk-off homer. “I was smiling the whole way around the bases.”

Miller enjoyed the blast from the third-base coach’s box.

“The ball Megan hit, she did not leave anything in the bat bag,” Ashland’s coach said. “The only question was if it stayed fair. It hugged the line.”

The dramatic finish produced a victory that Miller feels should do his team plenty of good.

“We’re so young in the season,” he said. “What I felt that game did, it moved us a lot. Midland is a good team and a great program. It’s the way we won the game that makes it special.”

Sophomore Katie Baldock went 3-for-3 with a run batted in for the Kittens, who handed the Lady Knights their only loss in four tournament games.

Hensley, 4-0 this season, allowed a homer to Erin Kaplan but limited Cabell Midland to five hits overall.

“They are definitely a good team,” Hensley said. “They hit the ball well. I didn’t feel like I had my ‘A’ game for sure.”

Ashland improved to 5-1 by shutting out 15th Region champion Magoffin County in six innings.

Megan Griffith finished 2-for-3 with three runs scored, one RBI and a stolen base for the Kittens. Hensley, who also scored three runs, launched a two-run homer in the sixth following McKenzie Vanover’s second double of the day. Sydney Whitt added two hits.

Meanwhile, freshman pitcher Megan Murphy limited the Lady Hornets to a couple of hits over six innings.

“Her changeup was unbelievable today,” Miller said. “She changed speed very well. It was a good first win for Megan as an Ashland kid.”

Magoffin County entered the Kitten Spring Invitational with a five-game winning streak but went 0-2 Saturday, also falling to George Rogers Clark.

Wayne, the defending Class AA state champion in West Virginia, finished 2-1. GRC won one of three games, while Johnson Central was 0-2