May has unofficially become Softball Month for the Baylor Lady Red Raiders.
These youngsters have had amazing success in the final month of the prep season in recent years and will be favored to win their ninth straight state championship in Murfreesboro in two weeks.
Coach Kelli Smith, who played on a couple of state championship teams during time as a Baylor student and who has led her team to 14 state titles during her time as their leader, including the last eight and 11 of the past 12.
She always stresses playing their best softball at the end when it counts the most and that has become a really good plan to follow in recent years.
Baylor has one regular-season game remaining against Chattanooga Christian, but they took a step in the right direction about playing their best in May with a 11-1 victory over arch-rival GPS on Tuesday afternoon. The game ended with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
The original plan was for Tuesday’s game to be Senior Night, where they honored six seniors who had been vitally important to their success, but the field wasn’t playable from earlier rain and the game was moved to Field No. One at Warner Park, which just happens to have an artificial surface.
Bailey Long hit a long solo home run to left field with two outs in the first inning to give the Bruisers a quick 1-0 lead that lasted for two innings.
Baylor took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the third before blowing things open with six more in the fourth. They added a single run in the fifth before closing out the win with two more runs in th sixth.
It was a special day for Smith and her girls as five of those six seniors played an integral part in Tuesday’s win. The only one who didn’t was Avery Shamblin, who will most likely pitch against CCS on Wednesday.
“I’m really proud of our defense as we turned three double plays and had some other outstanding plays as well. It took us a minute to get started, but a lot of girls contributed to a really good team win for us,” Smith said after her team had improved to 22-6-1 overall.
“We had played a close game with GPS a couple of weeks ago where we won 3-1, so we really needed to make a statement with our bats today. From top to bottom, we got a lot of good production from our offense and I was really proud of the way Kaylee Snyder battled.
“She knew she didn’t have her best stuff today, but she only allowed two hits after the first inning and really settled down to pitch well. This is a special group of seniors and five are moving ahead to play in college, but we just want to play some softball,” Smith concluded with a smile.
GPS coach London Cornelius knows that her young team has made great progress in getting better this spring. She likes their approach and looks forward to better days ahead.
“We knew it would be a battle with them as it always is, but they just hit it so well. We got off to a good start, but we had a hard time finding the moment where we could shift the momentum back our way,” she said after her team dropped to 8-10 for the season.
“We just didn’t have it today and I know we can play better. It just wasn’t today,” she added.
Jayla Gladden singled to lead off the game for GPS but an attempted bunt sacrifice from Emma Leinberger was popped to third and Gladden doubled off first.
Long then followed with a long home run to left to give the Bruisers the early lead. Addi Smith followe with a double on the second pitch she faced, but Snyder then got Nana Reyes on a grounder to first to end the inning.
Smith was the starting pitcher for GPS and hurled two shutout innings where all she allowed was a single and two walks. She was replaced by Leinberger, who got Sydney Sharpe on a fly to right for the first out before walking Addi Yates. Rylee Jasper grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out before Holly Merritt and Riley Oleksik ripped back-to-back doubles to put Baylor ahead 2-1.
The Lady Red Raiders then blew things open in the fourth when they sent 11 hitters to the plate and they scored six runs. Yates and Jasper both got RBIs with bases-loaded walks while Merritt had the big blow with a three-run double. Chloe Cunningham drove in the last run with a single to right.
Snyder allowed a single to Panda Reyes leading off the third and another to Reyes with two outs in the fifth, but the Bruisers never threatened again as Snyder was able to pitch around three walks in the final three innings.
Snyder was the winning pitcher after allowing the one run on five hits while walking three and striking out three. Leinberger was saddled with the loss after allowing Baylor’s first four runs on four hits in one-plus innings.
Cunningham had three hits to lead Baylor’s bats while Merritt, Oleksik and Amiya Leach all had two hits apiece. Merritt had four RBIs while Oleksik and Yates had two each.
Oleksik slugged a solo homer to left center to lead off the sixth while a double into the gap by Leach drove in Cunningham with the game-clinching run.
GPS 100 000 – 1 5 1
BAYLOR 002 612 – 11 12 0
Smith, Leinberger (3), Smith (4) and Long; Snyder an Oleksik.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)