Ryleigh Stone recalled some motivation from her time in little league.
After walking her first two batters of the night against Williston, Columbia’s freshman pitcher remembered similar pressure from her time in 12U softball.
“Going back to 12U, after I walk two the coaches are thinking of pulling me out and that drives the ‘I’ve got to get it there,’” Stone said.
Oh, she did. Again, and again, and again.
Stone struck out the next eight batters and finished with 11 strikeouts while tossing a one-hitter to lead the Tigers to a 4-1 win against the Red Devils in their home opener Friday night. She was one of two freshmen who starred on the night as shortstop Alannah Lord hit a three-run home run in the first inning for the game’s final score.
“The freshmen are pretty good,” Columbia coach Joe Saucier said.
Despite giving up a run in the first inning following her two walks and a throwing error by catcher Emily Delgado, Stone carried a no-hitter in the sixth until Brooklyn Bertrand broke it up with an infield single. Lord nearly saved the no-hitter too, diving to her right to glove the ground ball, but her throw to first base was just late to catch Bertrand.
Stone finished with five walks, but she worked herself out of trouble when she had to. She stranded a runner at third base in the first inning and also left runners on second and third in the sixth.
“A one-hitter in my first varsity start, that’s so cool,” Stone said.
Layla Crago and Bertrand drew the back-to-back walks to open the game and Williston then called for a double steal with one out, forcing Delgado to make an errant throw to third base that allowed Crago to score. But Stone responded with her second and third strikeouts and she was on a roll from there.
“A heck of an outing by Ryleigh,” Saucier said. “To get seven complete out of Ryleigh, and she’s not even 100%. She’s dealing with some shin splints from (Thursday), but she wasn’t going to let me pull her.”
It didn’t take long for Columbia to answer the Red Devils’ run. Williston starting pitcher Sara Hollender walked Addyson Sherman to begin her outing before giving up back-to-back singles to Anna Dansby and Luisa Taylor to load the bases.
Delgado then roped a double to score Sherman, while Dansby was thrown out also trying to score from second. But that was it for Hollender, who exited after just 1/3 of an inning.
“We had a feeling they were going to throw Sara, we were prepared for her,” Saucier said. “We prepared for screwball and curve, and you saw she had some control issues the first couple of batters and then we were able to hit a couple. We were on it.”
Columbia wasn’t done though. Emily Ascension replaced Hollender in the circle but her third pitch was a riseball that Lord rocketed over the center field wall for her first home run of her career.
“I was like, ‘oh, I need to do something, I need to put something in play to get us started,’” Lord said. “When I saw that pitch coming, I just let loose and it went.”
Ascension settled in from there, however. She only allowed three more hits and one walk the rest of the night while striking out seven, with two of those hits being a single and a double by Taylor as part of her 3-for-3 night.
Taylor’s double was the only other instance where the Tigers had a runner in scoring position. But with how Stone was pitching, Columbia didn’t need any more run support.
“They like each other,” Saucier said. “They’re hanging out. We didn’t have that last year. I’m excited for them.”
Columbia hits the road Tuesday for a matchup against Ridgeview before returning home to host Bronson on Thursday.