Baylor Bats Erupt Late In 9-3 Win Over GPS

Rich, Sellers Both Homer As Lady Red Raiders Win 13th Straight Game

  • Thursday, April 13, 2017
  • John Hunt

The GPS Bruisers were playing with heavy hearts Thursday afternoon at Baylor, but it didn’t seem to matter as the host Lady Red Raiders rallied late for a key 9-3 victory.

GPS head coach Susan Crownover, who has been dealing with unexplained medical issues all spring, wasn’t present as she was in the hospital Thursday.  That in itself was motivation enough for the Bruisers to play well in her honor and they did, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Two big home runs killed us as we gave up too good a pitch against  some good hitters,” said assistant coach Ginger Sillery in Crownover’s absence.

“We came over here wanting to play our hearts out for Susan and I think we did, but we have to score more than three runs.  We had a nice start at the beginning, but just didn’t get the big hit later in the game when we needed it most.

“There were two evenly-matched teams here today and it’s always a good game when we play Baylor, but we just have to put this one behind us and move on,” she added.

Kaitlyn Songer led off the game with a walk and scored ahead of a two-run homer by catcher Haley Smith.  Hannah Kincer’s single in the fifth allowed Songer to score again as the GPS lead was 3-0.

Shelby Walters was the starting pitcher for the Bruisers, who entered the game with a 12-1 record and riding an 11-game winning streak.

She kept the high-scoring Lady Red Raiders scoreless through four innings and had only allowed three hits while striking out eight, but the Bruiser train jumped off the tracks in the fifth and sixth innings when Baylor’s bats finally came to life.

Winning pitcher Ace Sellers, who is just an eighth grader, popped to Walters for the first out in the fourth before Emily Rye walked and Makayla Packer singled.  Cheyenne Lindsey, who finished the game with four hits, then doubled to the gap in left-center to drive in Rye with Baylor’s first run.

Abby McNamara took a called third strike for the second out before catcher Kamrie Rich gave Baylor its first lead at 4-3 with a three-run homer to center, just past the 2005 State Champion banner.

Then in the sixth with just a bit of breathing room and feeling more and more confident, the Lady Red Raiders struck again as they batted around and put a little icing on the cake with five more runs.

Ashton Bazzell reached on an error to start the inning and was on board one out later when Sellers hit her first homer of the season, a two-run shot to left. 

Hannah Kincer came on in relief at that point and was greeted by a triple from Rye, who then scored on an infield single by Packer.  Lindsey then reached on her fourth straight hit and scored behind Packer when McNamara poked a two-run single up the middle on a 1-2 pitch.

Kaitlyn Songer, who walked three times in the game, led off the seventh with a base on balls, but was stranded there when Sellers got her second strikeout of the game and back-to –back liners to Rye at third to end the game.

Rich was all smiles after giving her team the lead for the first time with that clutch three-run round-tripper. It was her second homer of the season and also the most important so far.

“We’ve been in close games before, so we never panicked, but we just had to adjust to Shelby’s pitching.  She had jammed me twice in earlier at-bats, but I got a great pitch to hit and knew it was gone as soon as I hit it,” she explained.

Sellers just celebrated her 14th birthday in February and might have been too young to be nervous, but she pitched with confidence of a veteran as her teammates finally got off the deck and scored a few runs.

“I felt confident at the start of the game as we have a lot of faith in ourselves.  And I knew my team had my back, even when I gave up that home run in the first,” she began.

And what about the two-run homer for the 6-3 lead in the sixth?

“I heard the catcher move inside, so I had a good idea where the pitch was headed.  I had a good feeling about it as soon as I made contact,” she smiled.

Baylor coach Kelli Smith never doubts the ability of her girls, no matter what the score is or what inning they’re playing.

“We had a long talk yesterday about doing our best and to not have fear of failure.  We wanted to play to win today and finally got things going offensively.  The most important thing is that we were calm and never got rattled,” she began after team had won for the 13th straight time without a defeat.

“We have a lot of new kids in our lineup and I’m really pleased with the way they’re stepping up.  Kamrie came through with the big home run to put us ahead and Ace pitched an incredible game.  And I really proud of Abby McNamara, who had struggled all game at the plate, but came through with the big two-run single in the sixth.

“We just have to remember that we have to keep playing until the umpire says it’s over, but it’s always nice to win and especially when GPS is on the other side,” she concluded.

Sellers improved to 7-0 with the complete game five-hitter.  She also had four walks and two strikeouts.

Walters was the losing pitcher after allowing six runs on seven hits.  She also had 10 strikeouts with just one walk while Kincer gave up the final three runs on four hits in two-thirds of an inning.

Lindsey had four hits to lead the Baylor attack while Rich and Packer had two apiece.

Smith had the big two-run homer for GPS and Kincer the RBI single.

Macie Stanfield and Walters both had singles in the first while Elizabeth Warwick had a double in the fifth for the remaining Bruiser hits.

GPS, now 12-2 overall and 6-1 in region play, will join Baylor and 14 other teams in Soddy Daisy’s Lady Trojan Invitational at Warner Park.

Both will be in action at 9 a.m. Friday with Baylor facing East Hamilton and GPS taking on Central.

Baylor is now 13-0 overall and 7-0 in region play.

GPS  200  010  0 – 3 5 1

BAYLOR  000 045 x – 9 11 0

Walters, Kincer (6) and Smith; Sellers and Rich.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com) 

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