Olive launches two homers as Helena breezes past Briarwood
Published 4:09 pm Thursday, April 4, 2024
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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
NORTH SHELBY – As the winds gusted at Briarwood Christian School on Wednesday, April 3, the Helena Huskies hit a new season-high for runs as they handled the Briarwood Christian Lions in an 18-1 win.
With the victory, the Huskies improved to 2-0 in area play and 24-4 overall on the season to bolster their case for the top of Class 6A.
After lead-off singles from Presley Lively and Hannah Steele in the top of the first, Helena’s Henley Traywick hit a sacrifice fly to right to open up the scoring and put the Huskies up 1-0.
Emma Olive was then hit by the next pitch to put runners on the corners, and after Olive advanced to second during Addison Draiss’ at-bat, the second baseman brought both Lively and Olive home to extend the lead to three.
Hayden Traywick then scored the fourth and final run of the inning off a ground out.
Helena then went one-two-three in the bottom of the first and resumed its offense in the second inning.
Cammi Pugh hit a lead-off single to start the inning, and Lively’s RBI single and Steele’s RBI triple on the ensuing at-bats took the lead to 6-0.
Henley Traywick got the third inning off to a big start with a solo home run on the third pitch of the inning.
After a Destiny Brashears single two batters later, Pugh hit an RBI single and Lively legged out an RBI triple to make the lead 9-0.
Steele then singled to put runners on the corners, and after a pop out on the ensuing at-bat, Olive launched a three-run home run to put the Huskies up 12-0.
Hayden Traywick then struck out the side in the bottom of the third before Helena had another six-run inning in the fourth.
A Molli Rollan single and a pair of walks loaded up the bases with one out for Steele. She then hit into a fielder’s choice to score a run, and a bases-loaded walk on the ensuing at-bat increased the lead to 14-0.
That left the bases still filled for Olive, who hit a grand slam for her second home run of the game to put her team up 18-0.
Briarwood got a run back in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Taylor Forrester after a lead-off single by Scout Staggs, which made the final score 18-1 as the game ended due to the run rule after the inning.
Hayden Traywick finished the game with six strikeouts in four innings against one unearned run and two hits.
Olive led the team with seven RBIs off of her two home runs in a 2-for-3 afternoon.
Lively went 3-for-3 with a walk, four runs and two RBIs. Steele and Draiss had 3-for-4 days, and Steele had three runs and two RBIs while Draiss had two RBIs and a run.
Rollan and Pugh each went 2-for-3 as Rollan scored a run and Pugh had three RBIs and a walk.