Saints rout Eagles

Pitching her fourth game in just a week, it took an inning for St. Anne’s-Belfield pitcher Shelby Linthicum to find her comfort zone.

After surrending a pair of runs on two hits and two wild pitches, Linthicum found a groove and retired 16 of the last 18 batters she faced as the Saints cruised past Covenant, 13-2.

“I started out a little tired,” said Linthicum. “But I talked to coach [Gracie Smith] and she settled me down. It happens after pitching so many games. I think that once I settled down and realized what I had to do, everything just started to come to me.”

Linthicum struck out 12 batters, including five in a row stretching from the third inning into the fourth.

“[Linthicum] got stronger as the game went on,” said Covenant coach Mike Thornton. “We just had a hard time hitting her. She was just throwing hard.”

St. Anne’s earned their first three runs on walks in the first inning, but didn’t start hitting freshman Taylor Peed until the fourth inning.

However, once the Saints started making contact, they didn’t stop.

“They went up to bat a little timid,” Smith said of her team. “We hadn’t seen that all season. They’ve been really aggressive. After we got past that, the pitches were there and we’d go up to bat with intensity, wanting to hit that pitch instead of talking a walk. Once that got started it was really contagious.”

Up by five runs in the bottom of the sixth, St. Anne’s saved their pitcher from one more inning on the mound by putting together six straight hits, including a

3-run, walk-off inside-the-park home run from freshman Sarah Tolliver.

“I was coming around first and I saw [the centerfielder] miss it,” Tolliver said of the game-ending hit. “So I just thought I’d keep going and then I saw coach wave me in.”

Tolliver finished 3 for 4 with three RBI. Teammate Perrin Givan was 2 for 3 with two RBI.

Covenant’s two hits came in the first from Peed and Sally Cathcart.

The Eagles lost four starters last year and are going through growing pains with a handful of first-time players on the roster.

“We’re just working our way through our youth,” Thornton said.

Peed put together a solid performance last year for the Eagles as an eighth-grader, going 12-10 and striking out 210 batters and earning all-Central Virginia honorable mention recognition in the process.

“Taylor’s just trying to find her niche,” Thornton said. “It’ll happen. It’s just a matter of time.”