PREP SOFTBALL: CBA's Shingleton nearly perfect in the circle

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 12, 2017 9:57 AM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- Studying a teammate's pitching style proved beneficial for Allison Shingleton on Tuesday evening.

And she nearly pulled off a perfect game.

The Charles B. Aycock right-hander yielded one hit during a 17-0, mercy-rule conquest of county and Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference rival Southern Wayne on Tuesday evening.

Shingleton watched from the bench when the two teams met less than a month ago in Pikeville. Mackenzie Wheeler consistently worked the corners and hurled a five-inning shutout inside the circle.

The gameplan this time?

The same.

Shingleton used her entire arsenal -- a curveball, a slow-moving change-up and occasional fastball to keep the SW batters, who didn't crowd the plate, off balance. The right-hander induced three infield pop-ups, six groundouts and sent six SW batters back to the dugout with a strikeout beside their name in the scorebook.

The Saints' Iyahna Bess spoiled Shingleton's perfect-game bid when she poked a change-up into no man's land behind second base and right field in the third inning.

Bess was stranded at first base.

"(Bess) poked, stuck the bat out there and hit...what she was supposed to do," CBA head coach LaVon Matthews said. "Allison really threw a wonderful game."

Shingleton retired the final 10 batters she faced during her efficient 44-pitch outing.

"I was just hitting my spots really well tonight," she said. "All the glory to God."

Offensively, Shingleton was just as spectacular.

Hitting in the seven spot, she cranked out three doubles, scored three runs and collected two RBI.

"I've been struggling all year, honestly," Shingleton said. "I've been trying to stay with my legs down (at the plate) and make sure my form was right, drilling that into my head in practice and during games."

Matthews wanted to see his team get back to basics against the Saints. CBA plated 17 runs -- 16 unearned -- on 14 hits and benefited from nine SW errors.

The Golden Falcons stole seven bases -- three by Connor Vinson, two by Taylor Puetz and one each by Mookie Powell and Hannah Vinson. The quartet combined for eight hits and five RBI.

"They don't make any errors, we don't score that many runs," said Matthews, whose team pushed across six first-inning runs. "We were aggressive with the bats, hit the ball well. I'm not as concerned with the bats as I was the defense.

"The defense was great tonight."