Summerville edges past Sumter in Lower State series

By Roger Lee

Contributing Writer



Summerville ­- Senior pitcher Ansley Bennett pitched her third no-hitter of the season and contributed offensively May 19 during a 3-0 Summerville win over Sumter.

The teams met at Green Wave Park for the first game of the 5A, Division 1 Lower State Championship best-of-three series. Game 2 is scheduled for 6 p.m. May 21 at Sumter.

“There were a few little things, the ball takes some crazy bounces on the field sometimes, but overall we played well,” said Summerville coach Heather Tucker. “Ansley threw good tonight and we had some timely hits with runners on base so I’m proud of them.”

Bennett struck out 16 batters while only walking one. Sumter did put two runners on base due to Green Wave errors.

“Summerville is a quality team,” said Sumter coach Mike Moss. “They aren’t ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 2 nationally for no reason so that gives us some hope. We are looking forward to Wednesday and just trying to manufacture at least a run or two. We did good tonight; we just didn’t hit the ball so my message to our players was to just never quit or back down.”

Sumter pitcher Lillie Ivey also went the distance. She walked three and surrendered five hits but only two were good for extra bases.

“Sumter is a great team and their pitcher threw well,” Tucker said. “She had some of our kids on their toes. After the game I told our team to take it one game at a time and stay focused on the little things. We don’t want to treat this next game any different from all the others. That’s how you win softball games; you don’t let the moment get bigger than it is.”

The game was scoreless until the bottom of third inning. Third baseman Daphne Frady got things going with a single. After a fly out, Bennett stepped to the plate and blasted a two-run home run.

The Green Wave added a run the next inning. Infielder Maeven Moreno reached on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by catcher Abby Driscoll. She then scored on a base hit from Gracelyn Cantrell.

Sumter put a runner in scoring positon in the top of the sixth. Third baseman Mylah Ardis led off the Gamecocks’ turn at bat and hit a hard shot between second and third. A Summerville infielder managed to get a glove on it, but didn’t field it cleanly allowing Ardis to reach. She moved to second on a sacrifice hit by designated player Kiley Laux, but Summerville got out of the inning by catching a pop up.

A double by Summerville’s Jayden Bennett was the only other extra-base hit.

Summerville improved to 31-0 on the season while Sumter fell to 22-7.