We all know that successful softball teams do all of the little stuff well. They get clutch hits with runners on base, they play solid defense and they often get outstanding pitching.
That has certainly been a trademark for the Baylor Lady Red Raiders in recent years and they have the state championship banners to prove it as they’ve won eight in a row and 11 of the last 12.
Certainly one of the best hitting teams in the Chattanooga area, they collected 11 hits on Wednesday afternoon, but only scored three runs as they left nine runners stranded.
Their normal rock-solid defense made an error that allowed the only run to score, but it was the outstanding pitching from senior Avery Shamblin that allowed Baylor to prevail 3-1 on the road at GPS.
Shamblin walked the first hitter she faced, but that was the only free pass she allowed, while striking out 11 Bruisers and allowing four hits while going the distance as the Lady Red Raiders improved to 16-5-1 overall while the Bruisers dropped to 8-9 overall.
“We were ready to play today. It had been a few days since I pitched and I was a little shaky at first, but I was able to finally zone back in and pitch one of my best games of the season,” the 18-year-old senior, who has already committed to play at the University of Memphis next year, began.
“I thought we were ready to play today. It’s always a close game when we play GPS, but even with a two –run lead, I knew I could hold them,” she added.
Baylor coach Kelli Smith, who has orchestrated 14 of those state titles after winning two as a player, was just happy to see her hard-throwing senior come through in a most-important region contest.
“I’m really proud of Avery as she was lights out today,” Smith began after the big rivalry game ended.
“Everything she threw today was working and that was a key to us winning this game as we were never able to get the big hit to blow it open. I hate to think how many runners we left on, but I thought we played well overall.
“I know we can produce more at the plate, but we’ll walk away here today with a big region win,” the veteran coach added.
GPS coach London Cornelius loved the way her kids battled. The Bruisers didn’t win the game, but they played really well and came within shouting distance of having a totally different result.
“That was definitely a typical Baylor-GPS softball game. I thought our focus was good and we came out with a lot of fight, but we’re still focusing on the post-season in May,” she added.
Senior shortstop Addi Yates led off the game with a double to the fence in left before scoring the first run for Baylor on a one-out single by Holly Merritt.
The Bruisers evened the in the third when Jayla Gladden singled with two outs, went to second on an infield single by Emma Leinberger and scored when the throw to second sailed into left field.
Baylor came right back and regained the lead with two runs in the fourth.
Chloe Cunningham reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error by the Bruisers. Rylee Jasper then broke the tie with an RBI-single to left. Sydney Sharpe followed with a double to center to put runners on second and third before a groundout by Yates plated Jasper with Baylor’s third run.
Calieah Reyes had a two-out single in the fifth and sister Nana Reyes had a leadoff single in the seventh, but Shamlin was more than up for the challenge as nobody else even came close to scoring.
Yates, Merritt, Cunningham and Jasper all had two hits for Baylor while nobody for GPS had more than one.
Leinberger took the loss after allowing all three runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out one. Addi Smith pitched the final 3.2 innings and didn’t allow a run on four hits.
Baylor returns to action with a home game on Thursday against Chattanooga Christian while GPS will be on the road on Friday to face Knoxville Webb.
BAYLOR 100 200 0 – 3 11 1
GPS 001 000 0 – 1 4 1
Shamblin and Oleksik; Leinberger, Smith (4) and Long.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)