Baylor Beats GPS Again For Second Straight D-II Title

Rich, Huckabay, Henderson Among Batting Stars For 37-4 Lady Red Raiders

  • Friday, May 27, 2016
  • John Hunt
Baylor catcher Kamrie Rich allowed GPS their only run on a passed ball, but came back strong to lead the Lady Red Raiders' offense with a pair of two run singles. Baylor defended its Division II-AA softball title with a 9-1 win Friday in Murfreesboro, Tenn. at the Spring Fling.
Baylor catcher Kamrie Rich allowed GPS their only run on a passed ball, but came back strong to lead the Lady Red Raiders' offense with a pair of two run singles. Baylor defended its Division II-AA softball title with a 9-1 win Friday in Murfreesboro, Tenn. at the Spring Fling.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo

MURFREESBORO – Baylor coach Kelli Smith was feeling no pain here at the Starplex Field No. 3 Friday afternoon after her team had beaten GPS by a 9-1 final for its second-straight D-II state softball crown, but that wasn’t the case late Thursday night.

Smith, who now has two state titles as a Baylor player and eight as their coach, spent more than three hours in the local emergency room, only to find out she was carrying a kidney stone that wouldn’t pass.

She finally got in bed around 4 a.m. and was feeling a lot better more than 12 hours later.  Winning another state title against your biggest rival can help quell that pain at times.

These two teams, playing for the fifth time this season, were close for a while, but the Lady Red Raiders blew open a tight 3-1 lead with six runs in the sixth and that took care of any GPS thoughts of forcing a second game later in the day.

Catcher Kamrie Rich, who allowed the only run for the Bruisers on a passed ball in the fourth, had a pair of two-run singles to lead the Baylor offense while Aaliyah Henderson had the biggest blow in that six-run inning with a  towering three-run homer that landed well past the fence in left.

Baylor improved to 37-4 with Friday’s win and Smith was somewhat emotional when discussing the game and the season afterward.

“I’m so proud of these girls,” she said with tired eyes from an obvious loss of sleep in the past 24 hours.

“People are always wanting to compare state championship teams, but they’re all special.  What makes this team so unique is they all understood their roles and they accepted it.

“And I kind of liked being the visiting team.  I have a lot of confidence in our offense and it’s nice to go on defense for the first time with a lead.  I thought that Kayla Hughes pitched great again and we had some spectacular plays on defense, including two from Abby McNamara at second and a couple from Mari Gardner at short.  But winning state championships never gets old,” she concluded.

Hughes was indeed impressive as she improved to 18-3 overall in her final high school performance, scattering five hits and striking out five while walking one and hitting another.

Seven of the Baylor starters had at least one hit and she got hers with a one-out double in the sixth, pumping her fist in celebration when she headed back to the dugout after being replaced by courtesy runner Ashton Bazzell.

“It was a close game for a while, but I got to go out with a bang.  I pitched about as well as I could and followed by game plan of hitting my spots and forcing them to put the ball in play.  And I was excited when we finally started scoring, but I didn’t want to get too anxious and that’s when I got my hit,” the oldest daughter of Pete and Karen Hughes explained later.

First baseman Crosby Huckabay, another Baylor senior playing her final game, also went out with a bang as she collected three hits, including an RBI-single in the second and a run-scoring double in the sixth that drove in Baylor’s first run of the inning.

“I thought we came out strong today.  It was nice to get a couple of hits with two outs and I’m glad I could get that final rally started with the double.  I’m sad that it’s over, but what a way to go out,” the youngest child of Caldwell and Shelley Huckabay said.

Rich is another Baylor player with two hits who has really been hitting the ball on the nose lately, the difference being they started falling in for hits.

“It’s amazing to win back-to-back state titles and I’m almost speechless.  I shouldn’t have let that run score as I thought I had caught it, but I made up for it later,” she added.

GPS had a tough time generating any offense in their biggest game of the season.  The Bruisers had five hits, but only in the fourth did they have more than one in the same inning. 

Kaitlyn Songer reached on a leadoff infield single and went to second when losing pitcher Hannah Kincer got hit by a pitch before Macie Stanfield loaded the bases with a single to left. 

Songer then scored on the passed ball before Hannah Sanders walked to load the sacks once more, but Hughes escaped further damage by getting a pop to short from Ariana Whatley for the second out before getting another pop to first from Sydney White.

Kincer pitched the first five innings and had recorded an out in the sixth before Baylor’s bats came to life.  She was charged with eight runs on 10 hits while walking four and striking out two.

GPS coach Susan Crownover had all kinds of praise for her sophomore starter.

“Hannah did all she could do as she’s been pitching hurt for the last couple of weeks.  Something’s not right with her hip and we’re not sure what, but she showed a lot of guts and gave us everything she had,” the veteran coach suggested after her team’s record ended at 25-13.

“I’m proud of the way we’ve played and grown this season.  I thought we played with a lot of heart, but we were never able to get a clutch hit.  Maybe that’s something we need to work on, but these girls play with a lot of class and we had a great season,” Crownover added.

Baylor left at least one runner on base in all seven innings and left a dozen stranded for the game.  GPS stranded six for the game, including one in the first, fifth and seventh innings while leaving the bases full in the fourth.

While Songer and Stanfield had their hits in the fourth, Haley Smith had a single in the first, Lilly Berger reached on a bunt in the fifth before Karly Benefield had a pinch-hit single to lead off the seventh.

Baylor has now won the last two D-II state titles, five of the past six and 10 total.

BAYLOR  210 006 0 – 9 12 0

GPS  000 100 0 – 1 5 1

Hughes and Rich; Kincer, Stanfield (6) and Smith, White (6).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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