Jim Fair
This play at third base created a dusty aftermath.
Jim Fair
Greer coach Ashleigh Anderson gives advice to a runner.
Jim Fair
The sprinklers came on causing a brief delay .
Jim Fair
The scoreboard tells the story of the game and gives needed light in the outfield.
West-Oak’s Hannah Price blasted two home runs, both in a 13-run sixth inning, to smother Greer in a first-round District 1 softball playoff game Friday, 20-7 at Greer. It was the most runs the Lady Yellow Jackets gave up this season.
“We will practice tomorrow and we’ll fight back,” Greer coach Ashleigh Anderson said. “We’ll see how resilient we are.”
Greer is expected to host a game Monday by virtue of its No. 1 seed in the four-team, double elimination playoff. River Bluff and Woodruff played in the other District 1 game Friday. Greer entered the playoffs with a 14-2 record and Region II-AAA champions. West-Oak, Region I, was 7-9.
The game had a personality of its own, starting in daylight, the sprinklers coming on at dusk, the game finishing in near-darkness and because of the three home runs the teams had to scamper for a game ball in the seventh.
Price pitched the complete game and kept Greer hitters off-balance, for the most part, with a changeup that helped strike out 8. “
Brooke Wade accounted for four of Greer's runs with a two-run double in the fifth and belted a two-run home run in the sixth. Baleigh Coker had a sacrifice fly and Clifford had a run-scoring single in the first inning.
Greer’s Samantha Bagley, the senior ace of the staff, pitched gallantly despite being sick at Tuesday’s practice and missing Wednesday and Thursday. She was nursing a 4-2 lead into the sixth when two singles and two errors put West-Oak within 4-3 when Anderson pulled Bagley and the floodgates-opened.
West-Oak spent the better part of 40 minutes in the sixth sending 20 players to the plate to score 13 runs on 10 hits, 3 walks and half of Greer’s 10 errors. Price drilled two home runs accounting for 5 runs batted in. It took four Greer pitchers, Bagley brought in a second time, to get out of the inning.
“Our pitchers know not to throw strikes to (Price),” Anderson said.
“This is the first time I hit two home runs in one game,” said Price.
Price, a junior, was touched for three runs in Greer’s fifth and sixth innings. “I used the changeup more in the early innings,” Price said. “We could have folded (down 2-4) but we pushed on.”
|
West-Oak |
000 |
10(13) |
6 |
– 20 |
|
Greer |
100 |
033 |
0 |
– 7 |