Freshman-laden Lady Champs defeat Viqs

Cascade chipped away at its cross-county rivals by posting at least one run in four of six innings at bat en route to an 8-0 District 9-A win over visiting Community in both teams' season opener Monday night.

The Lady Champions, who started four freshmen -- Carrie Brown, Alyssa Hoover, Kelsey Parker and Tori Slater -- carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third without having had a hit or earned a walk. In that frame, Leigha Carter doubled and Parker singled to lead a two-run rally.

"As long as we can make contact, we've got some speed, we can make some teams have to make some plays," Cascade coach Ralph Edwards said. "That's going to be our strong point this year. We're not going to be power hitters, but if we can hit singles and we can get a little bobble or something, we can turn the thing into a double with this team speed we've got."

Those runs were more than enough for Carter, who toted the rubber for all seven innings of the two-hit shutout. The senior right-hander had a perfect game through 4 1/3 innings before Viqueen Haley Milliken broke it up with a double. Carter then retired six straight batters before Amber Woods reached via error in the seventh.

Carter didn't issue a free pass and struck out three. She got help from her Lady Champion teammates as she induced 11 groundball outs.

"That was a big key because I talked about how we can't give up 4-5 outs an inning," Edwards said. "We're going to have to be solid defensively because we're going to have to peck away."

Community pitcher Meagan Reid allowed five hits and walked just three but was hampered by errors behind her at inopportune times.

Parker paired her single with a two-bagger. Carter added a double to her base knock.

Milliken added a single in the seventh to give her a pair of hits.

Cascade bounces out of district action when it hosts Richland on Thursday night at 6.

The Viqueens hit the road for another 9-A matchup with F.C. Boyd Christian on Friday at 4.