CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – When it comes to the best of the best sports celebrations, there’s nothing quite like the home run.
“As soon as you hit it off the bat, you hear the crowd, everyone goes quiet, you watch it go over the fence and you start jogging, it’s a great feeling,” said senior Baylee Reasor, who has hit 9 home runs in the regular season.
Christiansburg has had their fair share of this ritual. They’ve sent 30 softballs over the fence in 20 games, not only setting a school record, but leading the entire state of Virginia during the regular season.
“I tell the kids when they do go up to bat, swing with everything you got, take a hard cut at the ball,” head coach Robin Boyd said. “Most of the kids play travel ball during the summer, they’ve put in a lot of hours with that, I think it’s natural for a lot of them, they’re some strong kids.”
The Blue Demons are also impressive on the mound, with sophomore pitcher Kadyn Camper tallying 146 strikeouts and a no hitter so far.
“She’s definitely upped our level of play,” Boyd said.
“We just are a great team and we have a lot of chemistry together, if someone is down they pick someone else up,” Camper said.
During an afternoon before region play, the Blue Demons took batting practice to give me an idea of what it would be like to field against the hard hitters. While it did look a little homerun derby, Christiansburg still understands the challenge that awaits in region play.
“I think honestly, just treating it like any other game and understanding that we’ve done this before and can keep it going,” Casey Kietrys said, who has had 8 home runs herself. “Even if it’s a region or championship game, it’s not any different than anything else we’ve played.”
The Blue Demons will start the Region 3C tournament on Monday, May 30, against Cave Spring.