Van Reenen swinging hot bat for Hawks

WEAVERVILLE – Not much gets past North Buncombe senior Taylor Van Reenen at second base.

You should see her hit.

The Black Hawks middle infielder came into Wednesday with a Western North Carolina-best batting average of .697.

“I don’t know if you could find a much better ballplayer than Taylor Van Reenen,” North Buncombe coach John Stafford said.

“You don’t have to tell her much. She just does it.”

Van Reenen collected her 24th and 25th hits of the season Wednesday.

But the second Mountain Athletic Conference win for the Black Hawks (7-6, 2-5) wasn’t assured until the bottom of the seventh when Madison Fender came to the plate. The junior’s first home run of the season was a three-run walkoff shot to give the Black Hawks an 11-8 victory over visiting McDowell.

“I don’t even remember what kind of pitch it was,” Fender said.

“I couldn’t think about anything. It’s pretty great. It feels like our team is finally coming together.”

Indeed, Wednesday was the second consecutive MAC triumph for a North Buncombe squad that started 4-0, including a mercy rule win over state-ranked Madison (12-2 on March 4). And the Black Hawks are currently without junior Sabrina Crain, who has slugged an area-best six home runs. Crain is expected to be out at least until next week with a broken hand.

Van Reenen’s batting average is the third-highest in statewide statistical leaders compiled by the website MaxPreps. This is Van Reenen’s third varsity softball season. She is still holding out hope of playing a different sport (volleyball) in college.

“I’m surprised,” Van Reenen said of her batting average.

“It’s my senior year. I’m just relaxed. This was a good win for us, we haven’t won a game like that in a while.”

Elizabeth Daniels and winning pitcher Samantha Harwood each had three hits Wednesday for the Black Hawks. Van Reenen and Fender added two apiece, while UNC Wilmington recruit Monica Taylor was 1-3 with a pair of walks, two runs scored and an abundance of strong defensive plays at shortstop.

“It was a great team effort,” Stafford said.

“We got down, but the kids kept fighting back. We needed a win like this to realize we can play with good teams in our conference like McDowell.”

The Titans fell to 5-8 overall and 4-3 in the MAC with the loss. They got two hits from Bailey Stiwinter, Mikki Shelton, Landree Cooper, Maddison Waycaster and Victoria Nichols.