White Plains wins wild one
- Updated: April 22, 2015
Wildcats score game-winner on wild pitch to win their second straight County Tournament title
Anna Snider was named MVP of the Calhoun County Softball Tournament.
By Brant Locklier
For East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — The end came late in the night Tuesday as Ashlyn Hinton raced home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning to give top-seeded White Plains a stunning 1-0 victory over Oxford for their second straight Calhoun County Softball Tournament championship.
It was the culmination of a long week filled with rainouts and delays and 12 hours Tuesday of some of the best softball ever played in the Calhoun County Tournament. The day featured some great games and great plays.
Oxford and White Plains met in the championship game of the winner’s bracket and again in the finals where the Lady Yellow Jackets forced a do-or-die second game after winning the first championship game 1-0. The two teams played 21 innings of intense softball that featured spectacular plays and stunning finishes.
The Wildcats won the winner’s bracket final 2-1, scored in the first inning on a two-run homer by tournament MVP Anna Snider and then were shut out the next 20 innings before winning the title on the wild pitch.
Snider pitched all three games and after a home run and a double, the Yellow Jackets simply pitched around her next five at-bats by walking her.
Oxford’s JoJo Skinner was absolutely magnificent as well. After giving up the two-run Snider homer she held the Wildcats to just four hits and no runs over the next 14 innings.
“Our four through eight batters were not hitting the ball today against their pitching and we just had to try to manufacture runs; it was tough all day,” Wildcats coach Rachel Ford said. “We will work on that next week, but playing people like Oxford will get us ready for area play coming up. I am just so proud of these kids.”
To get to the championship game in the winner’s bracket Oxford had to beat defending 5A state champion Alexandria, and it pulled out a 6-2 win that took three extra innings after the game clock ran out after 75 minutes.
The Jackets twice staved off defeat by throwing out potential winning runs at the plate in the extra innings before picking up four runs in the top of eighth to win it. White Plains scored four runs late in their semifinal game to edge Piedmont 6-1.
In loser’s bracket games, Ohatchee slipped past Pleasant Valley 7-5, and knocked off Piedmont 7-6 before losing to Alexandria 6-0 and finishing fourth.
Saks did some damage of its own, nipping Weaver 6-4 and stunning Wellborn 9-4 in nine innings before falling 12-1 to Alexandria. The Valley Cubs emerged from the loser’s bracket to face Oxford with the chance to get back to the finals and face White Plains.
Oxford took the Valley Cubs for the second time in one day as it rode the great pitching of Rylee Waldrep to a 4-1 win. Waldrep pitched out of a huge jam in the sixth inning to keep the Yellow Jackets ahead by that score.
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