Big Bats: Milton, McDaniel homer to power West past Claiborne
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Morristown West’s first three at-bats couldn’t have gone much better.
Eva Boudier tripled, Kara Dyke was hit by a pitch and Kaylynn Milton brought them home, crushing a ball to left field for a three-run blast and sparking a 12-1 win over Claiborne on Monday evening.
The bats continued to carry momentum into the second when Boudier followed a Sydney Mendez double with her second triple of the evening for a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second.
The Lady Trojans delivered the final blow in the next frame.
Lynlee McDaniel crushed her first homer in a Lady Trojan uniform, and West was off to the races for an eight-run inning and a 12-0 lead. With McDaniel’s spark, Blayne Parker lit the flame in the inning. After Adyson Collins and Mackenzie Lucky singled, Parker found herself behind 1-2 in the count and battled through nine pitches before sending the 10th back up the middle for a two-RBI single.
“The bats stayed hot,” West coach Chad Parker said. “(Those first three) set the tone. When Eva gets on base, we score a lot of runs. She’s tough to stop. And then Kara and Kaylynn are seeing the ball well, and so are Lynlee and Adyson. They’re hitting the ball. You know, I can argue that Adyson has been one of our most consistent hitters. She hardly ever strikes out, puts the ball in play. And then Lynlee with her first career home run tonight, that was pretty awesome. And then Sydney hit the ball well. She didn’t get to hit a lot last year. She was one of our defensive players, but hit the ball well. And then Blayne kind of broke the game open, fouled about four off, and then finally hit one up the middle. So I was proud of that.”
McDaniel and Mendez led West with a pair of hits each, with Milton adding three RBI and Parker two.
Dyke held down the fort in the circle with seven K’s. After a pair of base runners early, Dyke and the Lady Trojan defense forced a flyout and a lineout to Boudier, the latter of which resulted in a double play. Dyke hit the first batter in the second but struck out the rest of the side.
“When she hits her spots, she’s tough to hit,” Parker said. “It’s still early in the season, so she’s still getting dialed in, but I think once we get a few more games under our belt, hopefully the consistency in all seven innings stays there, you know. But she pitched well tonight, had a couple of shaky moments, but came right back.”
Following Parker’s breakthrough in the third, West loaded the bases and Dyke drove in a run with a walk, and Milton reached on an error off a fly ball, scoring three more. The Lady Trojans put in another run off an error to close out their scoring at 12.
Dyke struck out three more in the top of the fourth, and Claiborne got its lone run in the fifth after a West error.
The Lady Trojans travel to Carter on Thursday before heading to the Gordonsville tournament, where the hosts have appeared in the last four Class A State Tournaments, winning two state titles in the process.
“It gets tougher every game,” Parker said. “We play Carter on Thursday, they’re a solid program. And then we go to Gordonsville this weekend to play five games. So we’re gonna see what we’re made of. “

