Silver no-hits Jamestown

Renee Silver tossed a no-hitter in six innings of work, and her New Kent Lady Trojan teammates posted all the runs they would need in the third inning as the hosts topped Jamestown 3-1 in Bay Rivers District softball.

Silver struck out 15 Eagles in the May 14 clash. The visitors scored a lone unearned run in the seventh inning with Sarah Baldwin pitching in relief.

“Renee has been pitching great over the second half of the season,” her coach, Betsey Lane, said. “Even different umpires and players say her pitches are moving and she’s got good speed.”

With Silver neutralizing Eagle bats, the Lady Trojans broke through in the third against Eagle hurler Megan Dent after leaving the bases loaded in the first. Emily Silver led off with a single past shortstop Jessica Davis and took second on Maria Bates’ sacrifice bunt. She pulled into third when the infield reacted slowly to Sarah Carter’s pop-up along the first base line and the ball fell for a single.

Sarah Barnett’s drive into foul ground down the left field line was caught for the second out, but Silver tagged and scored on the play to put the hosts in front to stay. Nikki Jones then singled to center and scored behind Carter on Chelsea Bedwell’s double to the fence in left.

“When we execute our short game, we score,” Lane said, after her team improved to 8-8 in the district and 10-8 overall.

Darian Carpenter’s solo home run in the third inning closed the gap on Jamestown’s Eagles to 4-2, but the visitors pulled away with a four-run explosion in the fourth on the way to an 11-2 conquest of New Kent.

“[Jamestown] crushed the ball,” said Trojan coach Ronnie Cox.

“I went through four pitchers and there wasn’t any difference in the results,” he said. “But they’ve won nine of their last 10 and they’re the hottest team in the district.”

Jamestown took a 2-0 lead in the first, but New Kent got one back in the bottom of the frame as Steven Allen walked and scored on a Carpenter double.

Carpenter touched Eagle starter Ben Perry with solo blast in the third, but other than Garrett McTheny’s single in the fifth, New Kent bats were silenced the rest of the way.

Hunter Costley’s RBI double and Scott Burkett’s two-run homer highlighted the four-run Eagle fourth.

“We had opportunities early on, but we couldn’t get the momentum going,” said Cox, whose team dipped to 6-10 in the district and 8-10 overall. “We got people on base, but we just didn’t get them in. They got them on and got them in.”