Baylor's A.J. Johnson gets a fist bump from head coach Kelli Smith after smashing a home run in the Lady Red Raiders 17-1 second game win over Brentwood Academy Thursday afternoon.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Nobody really expected Brentwood Academy to pose much of a challenge for Baylor in their doubleheader Thursday afternoon at Baylor.
After all, Baylor is the defending D-II Class AA state champion and has won four of the past five state crowns.
So it wasn't much of a surprise when the Lady Red Raiders punched their ticket to next week's Spring Fling with a lopsided sweep in the state quarterfinal round.
Final scores were 10-0 and 17-1.
"We're really played great softball since our loss to GPS and I'm hoping that leads to some good momentum going into next week's tournament in Murfreesboro," said Baylor coach Kelli Smith after her team's record improved to 34-4.
"We've been in this situation before, but it's always good to see them come out and respond in such a positive way. We've prepared about as well as we can as we've played a bunch of really good teams in all classifications, but it seems like it's somebody different that steps up in every game.
"We hit the ball well and we got really good pitching from Kayla and Aaliyah. We also got a chance to use our speed and we played pretty solid defense, so I'm happy," Smith added.
The first game ended with Baylor batting in the sixth while the second one was much quicker as the Lady Red Raiders used a 14-run third inning to end all thoughts of a comeback once the Lady Eagles batted in the bottom of that inning.
Cheyenne Lindsey had three hits in the first game and scored twice, including the first run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Crosby Huckabay.
The second inning was where Baylor did the most damage as they sent a dozen hitters to the plate and scored six runs. Abby McNamara and A.J. Johnson had the big hits with back-to-back two-run singles.
Winning pitcher Kayla Hughes slugged a solo homer in the fourth for an 8-0 lead before the game ended in the sixth following an RBI-single by Huckabay and a run-scoring groundout by Kamrie Rich.
Hughes allowed three hits in six innings with four strikeouts and no walks.
The second game was totally different from the first as the Lady Eagles were the home team in that one.
Brentwood Academy took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Jessie Brown reached on an error and scored on a two-out single by Maddie Lindholz.
That lead didn't last long as the Baylor bats came to life, starting with a three-run homer from sophomore winning pitcher Aaliyah Henderson in the second.
Four more home runs in the third were the big blows with Trinity Liner and Henderson both slugging grand slams. A.J. Johnson had a three-run shot while Huckabay ripped a two-run blast.
The single by Lindholz was the only hit for the Lady Eagles. Brown got hit by a pitch in the third and was sacrificed to second by Kristin Huddleston, but that's where she stayed as Brittney Chappell flied to center to end the game.
While Hughes improved to 16-3 with her first-game win, Henderson is now 11-1 and also has a pair of saves.
The soft-spoken sophomore didn't seem to be the least bit fazed by the other team scoring first.
"Stuff like that happens. You just have to learn how to deal with it," she expressed.
And what about slugging two home runs and driving in seven runs?
"I've hit two home runs in the same game before, but it's been a long time," she added.
Brentwood Academy coach Kristin Phillips didn't seem to be shocked or saddened by Thursday's results.
"We knew coming in that Baylor has an outstanding team as everybody on their team can hit. We just wanted to come down here and compete and I think we accomplished that. We'll take our quarterfinal finish and be happy, but we made a few mistakes in the second game that really hurt us," she suggested.
Baylor and GPS are the first two D-II teams to advance. The Bruisers were scheduled to play Ensworth in a quarterfinal round game, but GPS claimed two wins the easy way with forfeits.
Brentwood Academy ends its season at 9-7.
FIRST GAME
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY 000 000 -- 0 3 3
BAYLOR 160 102 -- 10 8 0
Terrill, Cathey (5) and Martin; Hughes and Rich.
SECOND GAME
BAYLOR 03 (14) -- 17 12 1
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY 100 -- 1 1 6
Henderson and Rich; Terrill, Cathey (3), Terrill (3) and Martin.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
AJ Johnson has a good look at what would become a homerun shot against Brentwood Academy Thursday afternoon in Baylor's 17-1 quarterfinal rout of the Lady Eagles.
photo by Dennis Norwood