With the Bulldogs season on the line down one run with two outs and a strike against her in the top of the seventh inning Boiling Springs' Abbie Threatt hit a homerun over the right centerfield wall to tie the game before the Bulldogs were able to grab a 5-2 victory over Easley in extra innings allowing the Bulldogs to advance in the 5A District III playoffs.
"That was a great win and the softball gods seemed to be with us tonight," said Bulldogs head coach Randy Piazza. "Abbie got the pitch she was looking for and she put it over the wall." Boiling Springs fell behind in the second inning when Easley's Olivia Durham reached base on a walk before later coming around to score to give the Green Wave a 1-0 lead. In the top of the fourth inning the Bulldogs Ragan Bristol reached base on a single but ended up at third on a hustle play after an errant throw by an Easley defender. Bre McAbee came on to run for Bristol and scored on the next at-bat when Grace McKinney grounded out to the shortstop tying the game at 1-1. In the top of the fifth inning Easley took the lead back Addison Pitts reached base on a Bulldogs error before coming around to score on a groundout to shortstop by Durham after advancing to third on a Taylor Crews single. In the bottom of the sixth inning the Green Wave were looking to add another run to their lead but a great diving catch by Bulldogs Alexis McFalls at second base and an on target throw to shortstop Jaycie Osment turned an unusual double play sending the Bulldogs to the top of the seventh inning only trailing by one run. After Threatt was able to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning Boiling Springs pitcher Olivia Hall was able to shut down a two out rally by the Green Wave in the bottom of the inning by striking out the final batter of the inning and sending the game into extra innings. In the eighth inning both teams got a runner on but neither were able to bring the runner home so the game moved into the ninth inning with the international tiebreaker rule that puts the final out of the previous inning at second base to start the inning. In the top of the ninth inning the Bulldogs started with McAbee at second base when McKinney hit the ball to shortstop and the fielder threw the ball to third base barely getting McAbee for the first out of the inning. McKinney moved up to second base on the next at-bat but came around to score to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead when Hall hit a double to the left field wall. Hall came around to score on the next at-bat as Threatt got her second RBI of the game on a single to left field before moving up to second base herself on a stolen base. Threatt made the score 5-2 when Hailey Owens hit a double to right centerfield and giving the Bulldogs a three run lead heading into the bottom half of the inning. "When you put hits together like that you have to be proud of your team," said Coach Piazza. "The girls were determined to get this victory and didn't let our early struggles bother them. We made some mistakes early but we got some great plays from them late and were able to get the victory." In the bottom half of the inning the Bulldogs didn't allow the Green Wave runner to advance off second base as all three hits that Easley managed didn't leave the infield. With the victory the Bulldogs will now travel to a familiar foe as they return to Fort Mill on Wednesday night for a chance to play in the Upper State round of the playoffs. The Bulldogs will have to defeat the Yellow Jackets twice to advance. The first game will start at 5:30 PM. "Fort Mill is good program but we wanted to go back there because we didn't have a good showing up there last time," said Coach Piazza. "We're a better team than we showed and we wanted to get another chance." Comments are closed.
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