LouisvilleCatholicSports.com

Valkyries ride hot bats to dominating victory 

After a 30-minute lightning delay, Sacred Heart Academy wasted no additional time striking lightning of their own, taking down the host Atherton Rebels 14-0 on Wednesday for its first win of the seaosn.

It was a tale of two teams, as the Valkyries took advantage from the start, going up 5-0 in the first inning alone with over half of the team crossing the plate. It was a dominating performance from beginning to end as the Rebels struggled not only to keep up with SHA's blistering scoring, but also struggled to get any offense going of their own.

Starting Valkyrie pitcher KJ Holden was a threat on the mound, as well as at the plate, notching 10 strike outs to go with two doubles on the offensive end.

Both in the second and fourth innings, Atherton found itself with runners on base, only to be thwarted by Sacred Heart’s outstanding defense, leaving runners on the field. The Valkyries even managed five innings of seeing three batters up for Atherton, and three batters down.

After going up 5-0 in the top of the first inning, Sacred Heart also scored in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.  With a loud crack of the bat to put an exclamation point on the victory, catcher Ellen Nusbaum knocked a triple deep into center field, scoring three more runs, before scoring herself, leaving the final score at 14-0.

“The game was about what we expected,” SHA Head Coach Bob Wheatley said. “We put a five spot on them in the first inning and then we kind of relaxed a little bit. We probably should’ve kept it going earlier, but the pitching was outstanding by KJ Holden.  The defense played just fine, even though we didn’t have a whole lot of chances. Overall we’re happy with as young of a group as we have.  We’re happy just trying to change the culture of softball over there and get it back on the right track."

The Valkryies (1-1) are scheduled to play again on Thursday at Presentation Academy (2-0) at 6pm.