Hanahan wins lower state in softball

The body content of  At one point this spring, the Hanahan High School softball team was 0-4 on

 the season and scuffling in all three phases.

How times

 have changed for the Hawkettes. They’ve now won 21 of their last 23 games.

Pitcher

Dria Tolbert,

 catcher Emma McGowan,

 outfielder Selena Riley

 and second baseman Maggie Priddy

 collected two hits each and third baseman Carson Koch

 knocked in two runs as the Hawkettes earned their spot in the Lower State championship game for the first time in seven years with a 7-3 victory over visiting Loris High School Monday, May 18, in the Class 3A playoffs.

McGowan had

 one of the biggest swings of the game, slicing a triple into the left field corner to score three runs as Hanahan went up 4-0 in the bottom of the second inning. The most impressive swing, though, came after Loris closed within 4-3 in the top of the third

 inning. Riley smoked a ball over the centerfield fence to regain the momentum again for the home team in the bottom of the third inning.

Hanahan added

 two more runs in the bottom of the fifth and held on.

“I told them

 I was very proud of how we made adjustments to their second pitcher,” Hanahan coach

 Katrina Bezdek said. “We put some more runs up when they switched pitchers.

 I was really proud of that. We had some really, really good at-bats that kept them on their toes and I told them we need to clean it up on defense. That’s the first thing you learn when you start playing softball. We should be able to throw the ball better

 than that.”

Bezdek’s

 team worked around three throwing errors and Tolbert scattered 11 hits to earn the win inside the circle. Only one run was earned and she struck out one batter. Tolbert minimized the damage by getting big outs with runners on base.

Loris indeed

 battled to the end, loading the bases in the top of the seventh. The Lions were just inches away from making it very interesting.

Brayleigh Wilson’s

 line drive headed toward the left-field corner was just foul, but would have cleared the bases since everybody was moving on contact. Instead, Tolbert coaxed a ground ball to shortstop

Camryn Fowler, who flipped it to third base for the final out.

“They’re

 a really good team,” Bezdek said of Loris. “They’re very well-coached. They can swing the bats. Their pitching staff was really good. They’re a very good team.”

Loris (24-5)

 drops into the loser’s bracket and meets Aynor High School Wednesday. The winner returns to Hanahan Friday and has to beat the Hawkettes twice. Aynor stayed alive with a 10-0 win over Dillon Monday after falling to Loris, 6-2, three days earlier.

Hanahan (21-6)

 is hoping to return to the state championship series for the first time since 2018, when they completed a back-to-back run.  They fell in the Lower State finals in 2019.

Even though

 the season started slowly, Bezdek could see this moment coming. She was confident these Hawkettes would eventually be in the mix for the big trophies.

“We had a

 good season last year and we lost just two senior starters,” she said. “We had our whole pitching staff back.and we knew with the other pieces we added we’d be stronger this year. We definitely thought we could be at this point.”

Shortstop

Haley Spence

 and first baseman Riley Herring

 collected three hits each for Loris and outfielder Bellamie

 Gore chipped in two hits and a RBIyour post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.