In a battle of district two schools the Boiling Springs softball came out on top behind a homerun and a great defensive play to defeat Chesnee 2-1 in the Bulldogs last game before spring break on Tuesday night.
"I knew this was a good team when we played them a few weeks ago and I told our kids this wasn't going to be an easy one when we came over here as they've done a good job with this team," said Bulldogs head coach Randy Piazza. "I'm happy for our kids though as we didn't hit the ball exactly the way we wanted but we made things happen when we needed them." In a game that became a pitching duel between the Bulldogs' Olivia Hall and the Eagles' Paige Scruggs, along with a wind that was blowing in most of the night, any run that was scored was valuable on Tuesday night. Boiling Springs got the first run of the game in the top of the first inning after AD Raines reached base on an infield single down the third base line before moving over to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Hall. Raines scored the first run of the game when Ragan Bristol hit a single to right centerfield giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. In the bottom half of the first inning Hall didn't allow a baserunner inducing three straight flyballs off the Eagles bats. Hall didn't allow the Eagles a hit over the first three innings, in fact the first hit she allowed was to fellow pitcher Paige Scruggs with one out in the top of the fourth inning. After allowing a runner to get to second base in the fourth inning Hall didn't allow another hit until the final inning of play. While Hall was keeping the Eagles hitters off the bases, Scruggs was doing a similar performance against the Bulldogs as she only allowed three hits from the top of the second inning through the top of the the sixth inning. After five innings of scoreless play both teams had saved a lot of excitement for their final acts on Tuesday night. Boiling Springs got the excitement started in the top of the seventh inning on the first at-bat when Olivia Hall took the first pitch she saw over the left field wall to extend the Bulldogs lead to 2-0 over the homestanding Eagles. The Bulldogs were able to get runners to second and third with two outs but got thrown out on a steal attempt of home to end their side of the final inning. "I had a feeling early on that it was going to take at least two runs to win this game," said Piazza. "I'm thankful Olivia got that hit when she did because it turned out to be the difference maker in the game." When Chesnee came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, Hall was able to force two straight groundballs for outs. With two outs in the inning Maddie Handy came to the plate for the Eagles and lined a double to right centerfield to put herself in scoring position. Handy was followed to the plate by Kyleigh Thompson who lined a ball to left centerfield that brought home Handy to cut the Bulldogs lead to 2-1 but as Thompson turned for second base Bulldogs left fielder Alexis McFalls scooped up the ball and made a throw to Jacie Ross at second base that just beat Thompson to the base for the final out of the game. "It was a great play by our defense there to secure the win," said Piazza. "We work on relays all the time and she came up throwing to the bag just like we worked on in practice. Sometimes it doesn't work out like you practice it but tonight it did." With the win the Bulldogs take a win into their upcoming spring break and Coach Piazza believes that having that momentum heading into a break like this is big for any team, his included. "I told people that this was going to be one of our most crucial games of the year because you never want to go into a break on a down note," said Piazza. "You want to take that win and momentum going into spring break because it keeps your team on a positive note during the long break." Boiling Springs will be off now until April 12th when they travel to Nation Ford for a region matchup. Chesnee will return to play on Friday as they travel to Gaffney. Comments are closed.
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