Mikayla Beard delivers a pitch for GPS in a DII-AA quarterfinal game against St. Benedict at Murfreesboro's Starplex Softball Complex. The Bruisers were victorious, as was Baylor, who defeated CCS.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – GPS and Baylor both won their semifinal games in the DII-AA state softball tournament at the Starplex Field No. 3 Wednesday morning while Silverdale bounced back from a loss on Tuesday to defeat Jackson Christian in an early game Wednesday.
GPS built an 8-1 lead and had to hang on in winning 8-6 over St. Benedict while Baylor got an outstanding pitching performance from Ace Sellers en route to a 5-0 victory over Chattanooga Christian.
GPS and Baylor were scheduled to play later on Wednesday afternoon in the winner’s bracket final. If CCS wins against St. Benedict, they would face the GPS-Baylor loser on Thursday morning.
In the GPS win over the Lady Eagles, the Bruisers scored three runs in the first inning while adding five more in the fourth, but it turns out they needed every one of them after St. Benedict rallied to score six times in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Southpaw Mikayla Beard went the distance for the Bruisers and got the win after allowing all six runs on 10 hits while striking out three and walking one. She also hit one.
Ansley Blevins had a run-scoring single in the first while Bella Jenkins had a sacrifice fly to left for the second run. A double from McKamey Bratcher made it 3-0 after one.
The Bruisers batted around in the fourth when they scored five runs.
Addie Beard walked to lead off before Emma Leinberger, Chapel Cunningham and Maddie Grace Hubbard all reached with infield singles with Hubbard driving in the first run. Ansley Blevins got an RBI after getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded while Jenkins added an RBI-single and Bratcher a sac fly to second before the inning ended.
Charlee Smith had an RBI-single to get St. Benedict on the board in the fourth while two errors in each of the next two innings allowed the Lady Eagles two times in each.
The Lady Eagles put two on in the seventh, but Beard got the final out on a comebacker to end the game.
“That took a lot of fight, but it was a big momentum swing when we got those five runs to put us up 8-1,” said GPS coach Martha Hanzelik afterward.
“It doesn’t matter how we did it. All that counts is that we came out on top. We were able to hold them and move onto the next game and I’m happy about that,” she added.
Cunningham, Bratcher and Hubbard all had two hits for GPS while losing pitcher Josie Gex had three hits to lead St. Benedict.
In Baylor’s win over Chattanooga Christian, senior Ace Sellers was masterful as she went the distance for the win after allowing one hit. She also had five strikeouts and two walks.
The only hit she allowed was a two-out single by Lauren Kay in the sixth.
Baylor had beaten the Lady Chargers rather handily the first two times they played, but southpaw Emily Day limited the Lady Raiders to just five runs on 10 hits.
Syd Berzon and Cadashia Collins both had two hits for Baylor while Sellers doubled one and scored twice. Katie Raper had the only home run, a two-run shot in the fifth that extended Baylor’s lead to 5-0.
Baylor coach Kelli Smith was really proud of the way that Sellers pitched and the way her team played defense.
“I can’t say enough good things about Ace Sellers as she’s such a competitor. Chattanooga Christian is a tough team and they hit it well, so that makes Ace’s performance even more impressive,” the veteran coach added.
“Katie had the big hit with the two-run homer. We got some timely hits and scored when we needed to,” Smith nodded.
CCS coach Lisa Gray never likes to lose, but she was pleased with how they made this game closer than the first two.
“We’re going to fight from start to finish. We struggled with our hitting today, but we cut down on the number of runs that Baylor scored as we gave ourselves a chance. At this point, anything can happen, but I thought our defense was solid and I thought that Emily Day pitched a really good game against a powerful Baylor team,” Gray said.
In Silverdale’s win over Jackson Christian, the Lady Seahawks collected a dozen hits while jumping out to a 5-0 lead after two innings.
Kennedy Stinson, McCade Cooper, Bree Sexton, Skylar Sheridan and Addie Keef all had two hits for the winners while Sexton had two RBIs. Gabbie Hensley, Stinson, Cooper, Sheridan and Keef all had one run batted in.
Silverdale improves to 28-11 with Wednesday’s win and will face Tipton-Rosemark on Thursday at 10 a.m. The winner of that game faces Columbia Academy on Thursday at 4 for the state title. Should Columbia lose, the “if necessary” game would be played on Friday at 10.
Chattanooga Christian's season came to a disappointing end with a 4-3 loss to St. Benedict late Wednesday afternoon.
ST. BENEDICT 000 132 0 – 6 10 0
GPS 300 500 x – 8 9 4
J. Gex and Griffin; Beard and Blevins.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 000 000 0 – 0 1 0\
BAYLOR 200 030 x – 5 10 1
E. Day, Hughes (6) and Blevins; Sellers and Oleksik.
SILVERDALE 230 201 0 – 8 12 1
JACKSON CHRISTIAN 000 122 0 – 5 11 5
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)