The people in the Boiling Springs community may be seeing a larger number of softball players this weekend around the area as the NJCAA Region 10 Softball Tournament is being held at the North Spartanburg Complex from Friday through Sunday. The region is home to local junior college teams as Spartanburg Methodist College, USC-Union, USC-Salkehatchie, and USC-Sumter are all members of the region.
The tournament got started on Friday morning with Monroe College defeating USC-Sumter and Richard Bland College defeating USC-Union. In the afternoon session Monroe College loss to #2 seed USC-Salkehatchie but the upset of the day came when Richard Bland College Statesmen won their second game of the day by defeating #1 seed Spartanburg Methodist College 3-2. Spartanburg Methodist College jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning after Kristen Gass reached base on a single and later came around to score on a Hannah Cannon double. The Pioneers still had runners on first and third with one out but Richard Bland brought on pitcher Megan Vincent who struck out the next two batters. Vincent kept the Pioneers off the board after entering the game in the third all the way through the fifth inning as she struck out seven of the eight batters she faced during the two and two-thirds innings. In the top of the fifth inning the Statesmen grabbed their first lead of the game when Erin Doyle hit a homerun with a runner on first base to straight centerfield giving Richard Bland a 2-1 lead. They added to their lead in the top of the sixth inning when Vincent hit a single to centerfield scoring Katie Haney from third base and giving the Statesmen a 3-1 lead. Spartanburg Methodist wasn't going to go down without a fight though as former Boiling Springs softball player Emma Williams started off the sixth inning with a double down the right field line before coming around to score on a groundout to shortstop by Desiree Santos to put the Richard Bland lead at 3-2 after the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning the Pioneers loaded the bases but a great play by the Richard Bland third baseman started a double play when she threw the ball home for the force out and the catcher made the throw to first base to complete the double play. The Statesman pitcher Joanna Holland who had came in the game after the bases were loaded closed out the game forcing the double play and then striking out the final Pioneers batter to get the 3-2 victory. Spartanburg Methodist will now try and battle back on Saturday to get to the championship game on Sunday. An All-Tournament pass for the event is $10 and has a number of local players playing in the tournament. Williams is joined on the Spartanburg Methodist team by former Byrnes player Amber Campbell, Alyssa Pennington from Gaffney High School and Jessica Thigpen from Blacksburg High School with other local players also included on some of the other teams. The first games will start on Saturday at 12:00 PM as Spartanburg Methodist will face USC Sumter while USC-Union will face Monroe College. |
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July 2023
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