Catawba Ridge Outlasts St. James 7th Inning Rally in 9-6 Win
Catawba Ridge freshman Keira O’Brien gets the win in game one.
Larry Gamble
HSSR, Photo Editor
Murrells Inlet – With the rain threatening on Memorial Day, the SCHSL AAAAA Div. 2 Softball State Title game commenced with the Catawba Ridge Copperheads traveling to play the St. James Sharks for Game 1 of the series. The game started out a classic pitching duel for the first two innings.
Pitching for Catawba was freshman Keira O’Brien for all seven innings allowing 8 hits, 3 walks, and got 10 strike outs. For St. James, junior Reagan Tibbitts pitched all seven innings allowing 12 hits, 4 walks and got 10 strike outs.
In the third, senior Aloni Hogan singled to start the inning. Next up, junior Jaidyn Harris triples on a flyball to center field that scores Hogans. With a runner at third, seventh grader, Brynlee Yates gets a walk on a wild pitch that scores Harris. Yates works her way to third with the next batter, then she tags up on a sacrifice fly and scores the third run of the inning. The third inning ends with the Sharks down 3-0.
The fourth inning went back to small ball game by both sides. Freshman Peyton Batot gets walked to start the inning then advances on a sacrifice single by freshman Charli Burney, followed by a single by Hogan to reach third. Harris hits a fly ball into an out, but Batot tags up and scores for the Copperheads fourth run.
This inning also saw some spark in the Sharks offense. Tibbets gets a walk to start the inning, Khloee Barton gets hit by pitch, then S Allen is hit by pitch to load the bases, and L Daniels gets hit by pitch to score Tibbets. The inning ends with the next batters striking out stranding three base runners.
The game saw the Sharks have two bad innings where they gave up three runs in each. The Copperheads 6th inning saw senior Sarah Rocheleau (Clemson softball commit) triple to score Harris from second. Then, senior Kendra Murray (Wingate softball commit) broke her school’s single season home run record with her homerun to right field which scores Rocheleau. This gives the Copperheads an 8-2 lead.
Going into the 7th, the Copperheads held the lead 8-2. A wild pitch allowed Burney to score on a mishandled ball after a sacrifice bunt. With the score 9-2 starting the bottom of the 7th, the Sharks needed a miracle, and they almost got it.
Playing an excellent small ball game, the Sharks junior McKenzie Kraus singles to get on base, followed by Neveah Sacchetti with a line drive single, then junior Raegan Tibbets smacks a dropping fly ball to load the bases. With a batter hit by pitch followed by two walks, and suddenly the Sharks are closing the gap to 9-5. The Copperheads traded an out for a run to make it 9-6 before getting their last outs to secure their Game 1 win.
After the game, Catawba’s head coach Michael Mayak had high praise for his team. He had this to say about his team’s performance. “It was important for us to stack some runs, play some small ball, … so that we can build a cushion so if we have an inning like this, we don’t have worry about scoring we can just trade outs for runs and that’s a great position to be in.” He gave credit to the St. James crowd, they were into the game as he called it “a rowdy crowd, that was phenomenal” at one point his pitcher was having difficulty hearing his calls. When asked about game two on Wednesday, he says that will be another test against a St. James team that doesn’t give up. “I didn’t anticipate a 9-2 game and I’m anticipating a one run game on Wednesday. We are expecting their best.”
Catching up with St. James head coach Paula Blackwell, “I was proud of our kids, they never gave up”. Looking forward to Wednesday, she said “it’s state championships, you going to get their best. “It’s been 18 years since St. James has been in state championships, I think tonight was good. The girls got to experience it, the hype and the energy.” When asked about her team being seasoned or young, she said “there are no seniors, we’re from 8th grade to 11th grade.” When asked about tonight and looking forward to Wednesday, coach Blackwell said. “Of course we want this outcome to be different. Our job Wednesday, we want to push it to a game three."
Next up is Game 2 of the series, Catawba Ridge is at home hosting St. James.
