WP stings Hueytown to win crown
- Updated: March 22, 2015
Wildcats avenge earlier loss in pool play to win Oxford’s Spring Sting
By Brant Locklier
For East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — The gritty White Plains Wildcats got great pitching from Anna Snider and Amber Greenwood and clutch hitting from the bottom of their lineup to defeat Oxford and Hueytown in the Final Four after pool play and win the Oxford Spring Sting at Oxford Lake Saturday night.
The Wildcats defeated Hueytown 6-2 in the finals, avenging a loss in pool play that snapped their 14-game winning streak.
“I am super proud of the bottom of our order,” Wildcat coach Rachel Ford said. “We have been trying to find out who is going to fill those positions and we have been putting pressure on them. I feel like they finally had some confidence at the plate and were not trying to do anything special. We could not have won this game without them.”
Ashlyn Hinton singled and scored the Wildcats’ first run in the second inning. Snider blasted a home run over the right field fence to make it 2-0 in the third. Lauren Dodson singled home Hinton in the fourth.
Hueytown finally got a runner on base in the fourth inning and scored twice to chop the lead to 3-2.
The Wildcats put the game out of reach in the fifth inning with three runs as Greenwood, Snider and Carley Wood came around to score.
Snider fanned 10 Gophers and allowed three hits in picking up the win.
White Plains 5, Oxford 1
Oxford scored first in the tense rivalry on Sarah Howell’s sacrifice fly and led 1-0 after two innings, but the Yellow Jackets couldn’t find a way to produce more runs. The Wildcats did.
White Plains tied the game in the third after loading the bases on hits by Lauren Dodson, Isabella Pinto and Shelby Wood. Oxford pitcher Rylee Waldrep got out of the jam with only one run scoring on Anna Snider’s pop single to right.
The Wildcats loaded the bases again in the fourth and this time picked up two runs to take the lead. The bottom of the order came through again as Hinton, Dodson and Pinto had base hits. Shelby Wood’s sacrifice fly to left put the Wildcats ahead 2-1 and Amber Greenwood’s single extended the lead to 3-1. Haley Lyner then made a great running catch up against the fence in right center to rob Snider and prevent further damage.
Carley Wood and Hinton had another single in the fifth and the Yellow Jackets got to throwing the ball around leading to the final two runs.
Oxford 7, Piedmont 3
Taylor Ellison struck out seven and scattered two hits for the Jackets.
Piedmont got on the scoreboard in the top of the first when Torre Roberts led off with a walk and stole second base. She was sacrificed to third by Rachel Baggett and scored on Madison Pike’s ground out to second.
The Yellow Jackets came in and played old-school ball as they had four runners reach base on singles and moved them around on a stolen base, bad cutoff throw, passed ball and another stolen base. They scored on hits by Haley Liner, Diedre Johnson, Sarah Howell and Grace Mitchell.
It was much the same in the second inning as they put four hits together to pick up three more runs. Liner, Kendra Larkin and Johnson drove in the runs.
“We learned that we have to put together base hits with runners on base if we are to have success the rest of the year,” Oxford coach Wendy McKibbin said. “We need key hits. Our pitching has been great and our defense has been very good, but we have get base hits with runners on base.”
Torre Roberts got things going for Piedmont in the top of the third with another leadoff walk and stolen base. She scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-2. It was the same process with the same player in the fifth.
Oxford pitcher Taylor Ellison shut the Bulldogs down in the sixth inning as time ran out. She allowed two hits and struck out seven.
“If we can’t play somebody that will make us better then we do not need to be playing them,” Piedmont coach Rachel Smith said. “It is all about getting us ready for the end of the season.”
White Plains 7, Jacksonville 5
The Wildcats scored three runs in the fifth inning to win.
Anna Snider got the rally started with a lead-off double, Carley Wood followed with a single and Lauren Mueller delivered a sacrifice fly to center that put the Wildcats up 6-4. Lucy Meadows followed with a single to give the Wildcats a 7-4 lead.
Mueller’s three-run homer highlighted White Plains’ four-run first, but Jacksonville came right back with four runs highlighted by Mary Mabry’s three-run homer.
The Golden Eagles scored their final run in the bottom of the fifth when Reagan Stallings rode home on Mallory Bell’s RBI single. Stallings went 2-for-3 in the game.
Gadsden City 3, Piedmont 2
The Titans rallied from a two-run deficit with three in the fourth.
Piedmont took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Tylin Wilson led off with a double. Torre Roberts ripped an RBI single up the middle, then stole second and third and came home on a throwing error by the catcher.
The Bulldogs had two runners on in the fifth inning after Gadsden City took the lead and were unable to get them home. Roberts and Wilson both went 2-for-3.
White Plains 4, Clay Central 3
ANNA SNIDER
Ashlyn Hinton scampered home on a wild pitch in the eighth inning and Anna Snider pitched out of three bases-loaded jams without giving up a run in White Plains’ come-from-behind victory.
Clay Central put together five straight hits to score three runs in the second inning against Amber Greenwood. The Wildcats then brought in Snider to put out the fire. Snider induced the first hitter she faced into a home-to-third double play and struck out the next hitter for the final out.
After Lucy Meadows doubled home White Plains’ second run in the top of the third, Snider pitched out of another bases loaded- no out situation in the bottom of the third inning to leave the score 3-2 going to the fourth. She also pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth after the Wildcats finally got the lead.
The Wildcats tied the game in the top of the sixth when Anna Rouse led off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Caitlin Cobb’s sacrifice bunt. Isabella Pinto’s single brought her home to tie the game.
The Volunteers had 14 hits in the game as they kept finding holes and Snider kept pitching out of jams. She pitched seven innings of relief, allowing no runs, nine hits, one walk and striking out seven. Pinto went 3-for-3.
Oxford 11, Gadsden City 0
JO JO SKINNER
Jo Jo Skinner struck out 12 batters in five innings and allowed only one hit in the five-inning win that allowed the Jackets to complete pool play 4-0.
Oxford’s Taylor Ellison walked and scored on a single by Diedre Johnson to produce a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
The Yellow Jackets struck for three runs in the second, highlighted by Ashlyn Miller’s two-run single. Makenzie Trantham drove home a run with an infield single to start things in the third. Miller had a single and Taylor Ellison tripled in two more runs to extend Oxford’s lead to 8-0.
Trantham, Chloe Stone, Ellison and Johnson had hits in the bottom of the fourth to add three more runs.
Miller, Mitchell and Johnson had two hits apiece for the Yellow Jackets.
Clay-Chalkville 4, Piedmont 0
In one of those dreaded mid-afternoon games when everything seems to slow to a crawl the Cougars scratched out single runs in four different innings.
Clay-Chalkville out-hit the Bulldogs 8-2 with Madison Pike and Torre Roberts getting the only two Piedmont hits.
Hueytown 2, White Plains 0
The White Plains bats just could not get going as the Wildcats struck out nine times and Lucy Meadows had their only hit.
The Wildcats did draw four walks, but left all those runners on base. It was their first loss of the tournament and snapped a 14-game winning streak.
Leeds 11, Jacksonville 0
The Green Wave scored six runs in the third inning to pull away. Reagan Stallings, Sierra Stone and Caitlyn Ryan had one hit apiece for Jacksonville.
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