Katy Grace Chadwell powers Boyle County past Danville
Published 9:44 pm Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Just 24 hours after a battle with top-5 Scott County, Boyle County turned around to host crosstown rival Danville.
The Rebels were dominant, taking a 10-0 victory in five innings against the Admirals. Katy Grace Chadwell starred on the bump and at the plate, pitching a complete game while striking out 11. She also hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning.
Chadwell also pitched against Scott County on Tuesday in a tough 1-0 defeat. Boyle head coach Brian Deem said this week was a good test for Chadwell.
“With the new state format, everything going on with postseason, she’s going to have to pitch back to back games,” Deem said. “We’re going to have to be able to make sure she’s in the right mindset to be able to pitch two, three days in a row. She’s going to have to do that, elite pitchers can do that and I think she’s in that elite category. It’s an expectation we have for her.”
Chadwell didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning when she gave up two back-to-back hits to Rachel Matherly and Amiya Crawford. Crawford was the only Admiral to not strike out at least once during the game.
“If we could’ve hit the ball a little more that would’ve been nice, but (Chadwell) just kind of overpowered us,” Danville head coach Tim Breitenbach said.
Just before those two hits, Deem met with Chadwell on the mound and had a simple message for her. The Rebels were ahead 5-0 and Deem wanted to make sure she continued to be on the front foot.
“Looking back on it I probably should’ve waited till the end of the inning,” Deem said. “She was in a really nice groove, I just told her to keep competing with herself, don’t look at the scoreboard. Compete with yourself and try to get better. I thought she did, she threw very well last night against Scott County. We worked on specific pitches today and she was able to do a good job.”
Chadwell was also strong at the plate, going 1-for-2 with a pair of runs scored. Eight different Rebels secured a hit in the win.
Deem was happy with his players’ approach against what he said was a very much improved Danville squad.
“They did a good job, we worked on some things, our pitch selection was off (on Tuesday) so we worked on that today,” Deem said. “We put the bat on the ball. Peyton (Young) has grown up, she did a good job today. Danville is much better and I warned my kids today, they had a good win last night against Wayne County. I just told them, let’s focus on the little things and try to get better. We worked on our short game tonight, we worked on stealing. All in all, it’s a day for us to try and get better and I feel like we did.”
Danville’s 13-3 victory over Wayne County on Tuesday was the second in three games for Breitenbach’s squad. He said that he likes the way his team is improving this season.
“We just need to make more plays in the field, we had a couple balls in the outfield that we should’ve made plays on, had a misplay at second and a couple at third,” he said. “I think our youth, our third baseman is an eighth grader and our center fielder is an eighth grader, they’re getting better but it’s a learning curve. But we’re getting better.”
The Admirals broke ground on their softball field next to John W. Bate Middle School this week, another positive in the Danville program.
“It’s good to get a win (against Wayne), but as I told girls after this game in the huddle, we want to play good teams so we can get better,” Breitenbach said. “And we’ve got to get better on defense. All year long, that’s what we’re focused on is defense. That’s where we’re at, I’m pleased with how we’re playing. We’ll just keep plugging away, broke ground on our field today. We’re excited and I think some people in Danville are excited about what’s going on and we’ll keep pushing forward.”
Danville will host Marion County on Thursday at 6 p.m. and will take a trip to Somerset on Saturday for the 12th Region All-A tournament.
Boyle County has a trip to Anderson County on Thursday before participating in the prestigious Tri-State Showcase in eastern Kentucky this weekend.