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GROUP A SOFTBALL: Holston back in hunt for crown

Holston High School’s state softball tournament experience wouldn’t have been complete without an intense, extra-inning game with the season on the line. Right?

“That’s exactly right,” said Cavalier head coach Lisa Blackburn.

Holston survived for a 4-3, eight-inning state semifinal victory over William Campbell on Friday afternoon as freshman Amelia Wampler’s RBI hit in the top of the eighth inning plated Faith Ritchie for the go-ahead run.

The Cavaliers will meet Bath County  today at 10 a.m. in the VHSL Group A, Division 1 title game at Virginia Tech. Holston beat Bath County, 2-1, eight days ago in the finals of the Region C tournament.

Holston followed a familiar script to reach the state championship game.

Over the last two seasons, Holston has played into extra innings in three of its five state tournament games. The Cavaliers have won all three of the games that went beyond seven.

As a result of the latest pulsating victory, the Hogoheegee District champions are in the state finals for the second straight year.

 “We knew we could do it,” Wampler said. “We pulled it through and that’s all that matters.”

It appeared Holston’s road to the state finals would take a major detour earlier in the game.

After three innings, Holston had committed two errors, trailed 2-0 and failed to get a hit off William Campbell pitcher Lauren Marstin.

“I think we were just a little nervous,” said Holston pitcher Morgan Lowe. “We started to calm down and make our plays.”

Lowe drove in Megan Honaker for Holston’s first run in the fourth inning. Mariah Morrison added a two-run double later in the inning to give Holston a 3-2 lead.

“We just had trouble getting our bats going to start with,” Blackburn said. “We kept popping things up. [Marstin] was doing a good job of bringing the ball inside and we weren’t being patient. … I always feel like we’re going to hit, we just don’t know what inning it’s going to start.”

The lead held until the bottom of the seventh inning when William Campbell tied it on an RBI infield single by Brittney Lawhorn with one out. The Generals had the potential winning run on third base with one out, but couldn’t produce.

“It was a good game between two good teams,” said WC coach Chris Smith. “At this level you expect that.  They hit the ball well. I thought we did a good job hitting the ball. … Just a timely hit here and there for them.”

Wampler had the biggest hit for the Cavs with her shot to left field with two outs in the eighth inning. Wampler is the lone ninth grader on Holston’s roster and has been a reliable slugger all season.

Blackburn said the youngster has been working diligently in the batting cage recently.  She reaped the rewards of those extra hitting sessions Friday.

“I got up there and told myself I wasn’t going to be the last out,” Wampler said. “It worked out.”

William Campbell got the tying run on third base in the bottom of the eighth, but Lowe got Marstin to slap a grounder to third baseman Brianna Thomas, who made the routine play, for the final out.

Lowe had given up just nine hits in her previous three games – and tossed a perfect game against Haysi in the state quarterfinals – but yielded nine hits on Friday to the aggressive Generals.

“That was definitely the best hitting team we’ve faced all year,” Lowe said. “They hit from top to bottom. We had a little trouble making our plays, but we pulled through.”

Bath County ace pitcher Jailyn Ford awaits the Cavaliers in today’s title game.

Holston does have the experience factor on its side.  Eight players who played in last year’s championship game – a 5-1 loss to Gretna – are back and will look to win the school’s first state softball crown.

“We have a good group of girls,” Lowe said. “We’ve been together since we were little. We’ve all had the experience. I think we could go all the way.”

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2011 and is filed under Education News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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