Noel Barnhill tosses perfect game for Lynchburg-Clay; LCHS defeats Blanchester and Ripley 

On Wednesday (March 26), the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs defeated Ripley in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action against the Ripley Lady Blue Jays by a 5-0 score, with Noel Barnhill tossing a perfect game.

Barnhill (3-0) in her perfect game threw all seven innings, allowing no hits, runs or walks, collecting 15 strikeouts in the win. Barnhill finished with 77 pitches, 58 for strikes. 

In the first inning, Barnhill struck out the first batter she faced, followed by a bunt coming back to Barnhill with the toss to first base for the second out. She ended the inning with a three-pitch strikeout. 

In the bottom of the second, Barnhill forced a groundout, followed by two consecutive strikeouts. The third inning saw Barnhill have three consecutive strikeouts on 12 pitches. 

Barnhill continued the dominant effort from the circle in the fourth with another three-strikeout inning on 15 pitches. In the bottom of the fifth, Barnhill forced a popup to left field, a strikeout and a called third strike to end the inning. 

In the sixth inning, Barnhill struck out all three batters she faced on 14 pitches. 

In the bottom of the seventh, the perfect game was sealed with a groundout, a bunt back to Barnhill for the second out and a line out to first base to Aubrey Roberts to end the game, sealing the perfect game. 

Lynchburg-Clay at the plate had two batters with three hits each, as Sophia Michael was 3-for-3 with two runs and one walk. Barnhill was 3-for-4 with one RBI, with two of her hits being doubles. 

LCHS scored four of their runs in the top of the second and one run in the top of the fifth inning. In all, LCHS totaled 14 hits and committed no errors.

Jazmine Brown went 1-for-3 (a double) with one RBI, as her hit was a double. Kami Collins finished 1-for-2 with a run, and Caitlyn Collins finished 1-for-1 (a double) with one run, three RBI and a walk. Sadie Kuipers was 1-for-3, Roberts was 1-for-3 and a walk, and Reese Ruble finished 1-for-3. 

Also for LCHS, Lily Ferguson was 1-or-3, and Audrey Barry ended the game at 1-for-3 with one run and a walk. 

Brown and Ruble each were hit by a pitch. 

Monday’s win over Blanchester saw LCHS win by a 5-1 score at home, with the Lady Mustangs scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning and two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Blanchester scored their lone run in the top of the fifth inning. 

For the game, each team had three hits and committed no errors. 

Lily Ferguson led Lynchburg-Clay at the plate, going 2-for-2 with one run and one walk, while Noel Barnhill was 1-for-2 with her lone hit being a solo home run as she finished with one run scored and three RBI for the game. 

LCHS also had Jazmine Brown collect an RBI, and teammate Kami Collins scored one run and drew two walks. Aubrey Roberts scored one run and had a walk. Reese Ruble forced one walk, while Sophia Michael scored one run and walked three times. 

Audrey Barry forced two walks, Avery Blankenship had one RBI and had a walk, and Sadie Kuipers also had one walk in the win. 

Brown and Barnhill both were hit by a pitch. 

Barnhill was the winning pitcher, tossing seven innings, allowing one earned run off three hits and no walks, while also collecting 12 strikeouts.

BOX SCORE
BHS      000 010 0 — 1 3 0 
LCHS    003 200 x — 5 3 0 

BOX SCORE
LCHS    040 010 0 — 5 14 0 
RHS      000 000 0 — 0   0 0