Lady Vikings ride Marie Chandler's no-hitter to win
JOSH SPENILLA / Sports Writer

CLINCHPORT "? Powell Valley's girls defeated the Rye Cove Lady Eagles 15-0 Thursday as sophomore right-hander Marie Chandler tossed a no-hitter in the non-district softball beat down.

Chandler faced 21 batters in six innings while striking out 12 and walking three batters. She also did damage with the bat with four hits and an RBI.

"My team supplied the runs and that helped my confidence,"? said Chandler. "I just wanted to be consistent and try to stay ahead in the count."?

Kaylla Holdway and Chabrae Roark each recorded two hits and an RBI. Morgan Haines and Erica Gilliam chipped in one hit and one RBI each.

Ten Lady Viking runs crossed the plate on either passed balls, wild pitches or errors.

In the top of the first with one out, Roark singled to left before Chandler and Cassie Sturgill reached base by error. Roark scored on one of the errors. Chandler scored on a passed ball and Sturgill by an error as Powell Valley took a 3-0 lead.

Rye Cove's Charity Lawson recorded the final two outs of the inning by strikeout.

"They gave us too many runs and that hurt them,"? said Powell Valley coach Paul Clendenon. "They are not that bad, and we are not that good. With our pitching, you just can't give us that many runs. We are hitting the ball pretty good and playing pretty good defense, but we still aren't as good as we think we are. We still have a lot to do at this point. We strike out too much and we goof off too much."?

In the top of the second, Roark and Chandler singled before both scored on passed balls to make it 6-0.

Chandler struck out the side in order in the bottom of the second.

Chandler led off the fourth with a single to left and Sturgill reached by an error. Both scored on passed balls and Powell Valley went in front 8-0 en route to the easy victory.

In the bottom of the fifth, Chandler issued a lead-off walk before striking out the next three batters.

"We have to grow up some, but they are a good team,"? said Rye Cove coach Ashley Hall. "They will do well. For us, there is nothing I saw that can't be fixed. We need to work on our hitting, but Chandler has good speed and a couple of different pitches. A pitching machine can't throw it like she does."?