BOILING SPRINGS, SC - In a game that saw both teams battling tooth and nail early, it was back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning that helped send the Boiling Springs softball team to a 5-1 region win over the visiting Gaffney Indians on Tuesday night.
With the victory, Boiling Springs finishes their first trip through region play with a 2-2 record and have a lot of confidence as the two losses could have easily been wins had things went slightly different for the Bulldogs. "We had the great momentum that we got from the Byrnes game but I told the girls tonight in our post game huddle this is still not our best softball," said Bulldogs head coach Hannah McDowell. "We can make a lot of chaos in the region in the second trip through and I don't think a lot of people were expecting that from us going into the season. We don't want to get comfortable with where we are but we want to keep the pressure on to get ourselves ready for the second half of the region season and the playoffs." With the Bulldogs trailing by one in the bottom of the fourth inning, after Gaffney got a run off an error, and the rain starting to pick up, it looked like it was now or never for the Boiling Springs offense to get started and on the first at-bat of that half of the inning lightning struck off the bat of senior centerfielder Morgan Hammett to get the Bulldogs bats going. Hammett was leading off the bottom of the fourth inning for the Bulldogs and on the first pitch she saw sent a ball down the right field line and when it hit the ground trickled to the right field corner. From the first step out of the box Hammett was hustling and by the time her foot hit third base and the ball hadn't been thrown in yet, she had no intentions of stopping and beat the throw home for an inside-the-park home run to tie the game at 1-1 with the Indians. "When I rounded second base I was looking for Coach Hannah and I was running as fast as I could," said Hammett. "When I hit third base I knew I had a shot to make it home because I saw the ball hadn't even made it to the infield yet so I just went for it. After I scored you could feel the energy pick up and the Bri followed and we took off from there." When asked if she thought about giving her senior the stop sign at third base, Coach McDowell said with a laugh that it crossed her mind for a second. "It was a neck and neck game up to the fourth inning there but one of our things is making adjustments, staying in the moment, and creating chaos which Morgan did just that on that play," said McDowell with a laugh. "Half of me was saying to keep her at third but I saw her running like a bull in a China shop and decided I couldn't stop her and just sent her home." The energy from the inside-the-park home run went up another level on the next at-bat as junior pitcher Bri Stanley took a 2-0 pitch to deep right centerfield for a homerun to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead, their first lead of the game. "After Morgan got that inside-the-park homer I said I'm probably not going to hit one like that so I better try to hit one over the fence," said Stanley with a laugh. "In all honesty though, I was just thinking about hitting it base to base and when you do that the home runs will just come." With the Bulldogs still holding onto a one run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, they looked to add some insurance runs which they did pushing their lead to 5-1 over the Indians. The sixth inning got started with Bri Stanley being walked and two outs later it looked like that strategy may be working out well for Gaffney until Sayde Parris hit a double to the left centerfield wall putting herself and Bri McAbee, who ran for Stanley, in scoring position. On the next at-bat, both McAbee and Parris scored on a triple to right field by Gracen Bennett to push the Boiling Springs lead to 4-1 over Gaffney. Bennett made the score 5-1 in favor of the Bulldogs when she scored from third base on a passed ball. Bulldogs pitcher Bri Stanley also had a big night from the pitching circle as she went all seven innings while not allowing an earned run and striking out 11 Gaffney batters. Stanley said she didn't have her best stuff on Tuesday but the confidence of her defense in her and the confidence she has in them helped her gut out a win in a game she wasn't pitching her best. "Coming into this game I felt a little weak minded because in this game after so long you just get worn down some," said Stanley. "My coach and teammates were able to reassure me they had my back though and to let the defense work and I did what I could. Having a defense like I have behind me is great because as a pitcher you feel like you're working your tail off each at-bat and to know they have my back is big but that goes both ways because I have their backs as well." McDowell said the toughness shown by Stanley to admit she didn't have her best stuff in the circle but to still find a way to win is huge. "Coming into the season I'm not sure Bri fully believed that she could do the hard things to get herself out of situations on the mound," said McDowell. "I believe that now that she's accomplished it she has a lot more confidence in what she brings to the pitching circle. Tonight she told me her pitches weren't working early but she's a problem solver and made it work to come away with eleven strikeouts and a win tonight. It takes a mentally tough person with a passion for their sport to say hey I'm not on my A-game, but I'm going to make it work for my team." In the game, Boiling Springs had six total hits and four of those were all for extra bases, including two home runs and a triple. Boiling Springs will go out of region play in their next contest as they travel to Grey Collegiate on Thursday in a game with a scheduled start time of 7:30 PM. 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