Lady 'Cats win on Opening Day

The Whiteoak Lady Wildcats embarked in a pitchers’ duel on Monday night in their season opener, where All-Ohio pitchers Kiley Sosby of Whiteoak and Mikayla Newland of Paint Valley struck out a combined 35 batters.

In that matchup of two of the best pitchers in the state, it was the Lady Wildcats who left the game the victors, winning by a 5-2 score Monday at WHS.

WHS scored all five of their runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, where they entered the inning trailing by a 2-0 score. PV scored their runs in the first and fourth innings.

The Lady Wildcats finished the game with four hits, where one of the hits came off the bat of Jayde Parr, who ended the game with three RBIs. Also with RBIs were Alexis Jones and Ashleigh Harless.

Sosby, Jaycie Parr and Harless each had one hit. Sosby also drew two walks.

Now to the showcase of the game … the pitching, where Sosby left as the winning pitcher, going all seven innings. Sosby allowed two unearned runs on three hits and no walks. She struck out 17 batters in the win.

Sosby threw 84 pitches, 74 for strikes, with 14 of her 17 strikeouts being that of the swinging variety. PV had a .115 average against Sosby on Monday.

Sosby now has 849 strikeouts in her high school career.

Newland, who was charged with the loss, allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks. She finished with 18 strikeouts. Newland tossed 102 pitches, 76 strikes, as 17 of her 18 strikeouts were swinging third strikes.