The Lady Seahawks had to go to the “if necessary” game against Knoxville Grace Wednesday in the East Region championship of Division II-A but pitcher Katie Willoughby and her Silverdale teammates did what was necessary and overcame a four error game to defeat the Lady Rams, 8-4.
Willoughby scattered seven hits and struck out six over seven innings to give the ‘hawks the top seed out of the East heading into the first round of the state playoffs. Meanwhile, her teammates banged out 10 hits and Silverdale, the 2018 DII-A state champions, receives a bye and will be at home on May 19th for a quarterfinal contest. They will face the winner of the number 2 seed out of the middle region and the fourth seed out of the West.
After losing the winner’s bracket final to Grace the night before, the Lady Seahawks fell behind early, spotting their opponents a 2-1 lead after one inning. However, Silverdale came back to score three in the second.
Skylar Sheridan led off the inning with a base on balls and advanced to second on Bree Sexton’s sacrifice. Gabbie Hensley singled to center and went to second on the throw home as Sheridan scored. After a pop up to the pitcher, Addie Keef singled on a line drive to short, moving Hensley to third.
Keef advanced on a defensive interference call setting the plate for Kennedy Stinson to smack a hard groundball to left allowing Hensley and Keef to score. Silverdale ended the inning with two runners left in scoring position.
Bentlee Stiner and Hensley, a talented eighth grader, led the Lady Seahawks at the plate ringing up a pair of hits each. Stiner and Stinson each had a double and Emry Masterson tripled. Stinson, Stiner and McCade Cooper all had two RBIs.
The Lady Seahawks added another run in the fifth before putting the game out of reach with three more in the sixth.
Following a Grace pitching change to start the frame, Ansley Junkins worked a leadoff walk off a 3-2 count. Junkins moved up on a wild pitch and Keef drew the second straight walk of the inning.
After two more pitching changes that produced a strikeout, Masterson reached on an error by the Rams’ shortstop to load the bases.
Cooper picked up an RBI on a groundout to second that scored Junkins. Stiner closed out the Silverdale scoring with a two-run single to center.
The Lady Rams picked up a lone run in the bottom of the sixth to get the contest to its closing margin. Willoughby retired Grace on five pitches in the bottom of the seventh, inducing two ground ball outs and a final pop up to Sheridan at third.
SILVERDALE 130 013 0 – 8 10 4
KNOX GRACE 200 002 0 – 4 7 1
Willoughby and Hensley; Cooper, Lay (4), Million (4) and Malone.
(Email Dennis Norwood at dennisnorwood56@gmail.com; follow him on Twitter at @noogasportdude)