| Both the Union City softall and baseball teams killed two birds with one stone.
The Lady Tornadoes and Twisters each moved into the championship round of their respective District 14A Tournaments and clinched a berth in Monday’s regional semifinals in the process with thrilling wins over host Halls Wednesday.
UC’s girls got a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth from Tory Reedy to beat the Lady Tigers 1-0. Union City (19-6) now awaits the winner of today’s losers’ bracket finals between South Fulton and Halls in Game 1 of the championship round at 6:30 p.m.
Should the Tornado girls lose tonight’s game, a second contest would be played Friday night at 6.
South Fulton kept its hopes alive with an 8-4 triumph over Trenton in a Wednesday elimination game.
The Devilettes (21-11) need another triumph this afternoon at 5 vs. a Halls team that bumped them to the loser’s bracket to clinch a 17th straight regional tournament berth.
SF has already clinched a 10th consecutive 20-win season.
The Twister baseball team, meanwhile, is in the same catbird’s seat after holding off Halls 5-3 with the Tigers having the tying runs in scoring position before Drake Parker got a strikeout to end the game.
Union City (24-7) will now play the winner of today’s Halls-Trenton game, tonight at 7.
A victory would give the top-seeded locals the tourney title, while a loss would force a second game Friday at 7 p.m.
Wednesday’s highlights are as follows:
SOFTBALL
UC 1, Halls 0
The Lady Tornadoes’ started the rally that produced the game’s only run with two outs in extra innings.
Sadie Hollis singled and Bettye Claire Beachum did the same before Reedy lined a pitch up the middle to set off a UC celebration.
Brittany Parker’s double represented Union City’s lone extra-base hit in the contest. Hollis, Beachum, Reedy, Courtney Sherrill, Caroline Chism and Ashley Faught all singled for the Twister girls, who fanned just three times but could never mount much of an offensive threat.
“Sometimes, you have to win when you don’t play particularly well and tonight was one of those cases,” UC head coach Wade Maddox said. “Sadie made sure we didn’t have to do a lot offensively, but we never really could get much of anything going.”
Hollis continued her string of stellar mound efforts, tossing a five-hit shutout to improve her personal mark to 12-5. She struck out 14 and walked just two.
SF 8, Trenton 4
The Red Devilettes (21-11) spotted Peabody two runs in the first inning and then took command the rest of the way to move within one win of a regional tournament berth Wednesday at Halls.
Trailing 2-0, South Fulton scored three runs on four hits in the second, added three more runs on three hits in the fifth and capped off the effort with two runs on two hits in the top of the seventh.
The Lady Golden Tide tried to make a late comeback, taking advantage of three SF errors to score twice in the bottom half of the seventh frame.
Kristen Crocker went the distance in the circle, striking out four and walking three while giving up four hits. Only two runs against her were earned.
Desiray Sturgeon had a solid day at the plate and on the basepaths, going 4-for-4 with an RBI and three stolen bases.
Aalia Bivens was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Cassidy Ruddle doubled, Crocker singled and drove in a run, Lexi Johnson singled and stole a base and both Sara Reams and Melanie Johnson had a base hit.
BASEBALL
UC 5, Halls 3
Parker struck out Skyler Harrison to finish off the Golden Tornadoes’ win over Halls, sending UC to the District 14A Tournament finals today and the Region 7A Tournament next week.
UC plated four runs in the fourth inning for a 5-1 lead but gave up a run in the top of the sixth and another in the seventh before Parker came on in relief of Drew Cooley with one out in the seventh.
Cooley (8-1) was solid over 61⁄3 innings, striking out seven and walking four with three hits. He allowed three runs, one earned. Parker walked one and gave up a hit but also fanned two.
UC grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Knox Faulkner, running for Luke Searcy, scored on an error.
Halls tied it in the fourth when Zach Harris walked and scored on an error.
Union City put up four runs in the bottom half of the inning as Joseph Shanks singled and scored on Christian Cousar’s double, Eric Moore singled and scored on an error, Cousar raced home on a passed ball and Faulkner crossed the plate on Caleb Long’s double.
Searcy, Long and Moore all had two hits for the Twisters, as did Noah Goodwin for the Tigers.
Halls will play Trenton in the loses’ bracket finals this afternoon.
The Golden Tide earned their spot with a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning to stun Greenfield 4-3.
Matthew Pickard strokes a two-run walk-off base hit to left-centerfield for Peabody. Published in The Messenger 5.9.13 |
