On Tuesday evening at Ronnie Hicks Field, Cloudland junior Kenzie Birchfield pitched a marathon 168 pitch game, and the Lady Highlanders held off the Unaka Lady Rangers 7-6 in 10 innings in Watauga Valley Conference softball action.

Leftfielder Heaven Caraway hit a first inning two-run homer as Cloudland took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Caraway’s blast came with Kara Fields on base with an infield hit, and she turned on a 1-0 pitch from freshman Sadie Shoun and pulled it over the fence in left.

A third run came across on an infield out off the bat of Krisi Bare to give Birchfield three runs with which to work.

“(Kenzie) was big for us tonight,” commented Lady Highlanders manager Matt Birchfield. “She hit her spots. They have good hitters, and she did what she needed to do, and it was a super, super effort. We got some runs early on Caraway’s two-run home run, and that gave us a spark.”

Cloudland scored a run in the second with Caraway again doing the damage with an RBI double to centerfield as the ‘Landers took a 4-0 lead. Unaka (8-5, 2-1 WVC) was held hitless through three innings until Madison Pierce singled to lead off the last of the fourth.

Cloudland made a pair of errors, walked and hit a batter as the Lady Rangers plated three runs on just one hit to make it a one-run contest. The score remained static until the last of the seventh when the Rangers pushed across the tying run on a run-scoring hit from Lillie Kiser.

“We knew what we had to do,” Lady Rangers manager Kenneth Chambers said. “We worked on it yesterday, and it was the same thing we did in the tournament last week. We just have to come out ready to play, and as a team, I don’t think we did. Cloudland had a lot to do with that, and we had way too many errors and didn’t hit the ball as we should.”

In the extra frames, both teams had double plays that ruined their opponent’s rally. In the top of the ninth with a runner on first, the Rangers turned a 6-4-3 twin killing and relief pitcher Kailey Wilson was able to retire Birchfield for the final out.

In the tenth, the international rule went into effect, and the speedy Birchfield was put at second base. Bare singled to right to put runners on the corners for Cloudland, and Taylor Hicks forced home a run with a fielder’s choice grounder that came to the plate too late from second base.

Gracie Cook plated another run on a ground out, and Fields had an RBI hit to stake the ‘Landers to a 7-4 lead. In the Unaka half of the stanza, Pierce was at second, and shortstop Erika Potter’s double plated her and an infield error allowed pinch runner Abby Fuel to score and make it a 7-6 game.

Birchfield bore down and retired Taylor Shanks on a pop fly to second and Noel Collins on a grounder to third.

“I’m exhausted, but I feel good,” Birchfield said. “Everybody stepped up even though we are really young. We knew we had to play really hard and the game plan was to pitch outside and then come in. They are really good hitters, and we knew we had to move them around.”

Cloudland 7-6 (10 innings)

Cloudland 310 000 000 3 – 7 12 2

Unaka 000 300 100 2 – 6   5 5

W – K. Birchfield L – Wilson

HR – Caraway.