MONETTA, S.C. — The Lady Wolverines keep on rolling and take game one of the Upper State Championships. Whitmire(21-5, 12-1 region 1-A) defeated Ridge Spring-Monetta(22-9, 13-0 region 3-A) 13-0 on the road in the opening game for the Upper State Championships on Friday, May 15.
Nearly a week after winning the district title, the Lady Wolverines found themselves in a familiar position for the third consecutive year. Whitmire was on the road last Friday to take on the Lady Trojans and they were looking to take one step closer to capturing the Upper State title.
Kenleigh Epps got things going for the Lady Wolverines early in this game. She reached base with a walk in her first at bat and displayed great base running skills with two stolen bases to put herself in scoring position. Autumn Gilliam blasted a ball into the outfield for RBI triple and to bring in Whitmire’s first run of the game.
Alleigh Corley got in on the action with a RBI single to extend their lead to 2-0 at the top of the first inning. Epps started in the circle for the Lady Wolverines and dominated from start to finish. She didn’t give up a hit in the first inning and had one strikeout in the first inning.
Epps continued to dominate in the early stages of the game. She was able to find a hole in the infield to bring in a run for a RBI single. Whitmire took a 3-0 lead at the top of the second inning. Then, the star junior continued her dominance on the mound by adding two more strikeouts to her total.
Chloe Hix begin to make her presence felt at the top of the third inning with a hard hit ball in between the center fielder and right fielder that dropped for a double. She then stole third base to put herself in scoring position before Raylin Vicars brought her home with a RBI double. Whitmire would take their comfortable 4-0 lead into the bottom half of the third inning.
The Lady Trojans tried to make some noise at the bottom of the third by getting a runner on base for the first time on a Whitmire error. They couldn’t find a way to bring the base runner in for a score and they would remain scoreless.
Both teams were scoreless in the fourth inning, but Whitmire would make up for it at the top of the fifth inning. They scored nine unanswered runs to put this game away. Corley would hit a ball to right field fence and would score on a inside the park home run due to a throwing error by the home team.
Whitmire loaded the bases up and would extend their lead to 6-0 after a walked batter brought in another run. A bad pitch would make the Lady Wolverines lead grow to 7-0 after a base runner scored from home. Epps would bring home two more runs for scores with a RBI double.
Ridge Spring-Monetta coaching staff saw enough and decided to finally make a pitching change after falling behind 9-0. That didn’t matter to Whitmire after they got rolling and Gilliam would keep things going with a RBI single to make it a 11-0 lead.
Hix would come to the plate and get herself another hard hit to score two more runs that extended the lead to 13-0. Whitmire would commit another error and Epps would hit a batter to put two base runners on at the bottom of the fifth inning. The Lady Wolverines would then settle down to get the final two outs and close out the game.
“We keep trying to get better. They work hard everyday and they know it. We talked about the little things we would have to do here in Upper State like getting bunts down. If you watched today we made them make plays and put a lot of bunts down,” said head coach Andrew Campbell. “We eventually timed up their pitcher and everybody started to hit the ball. Like I said the other week, this team just grinds, keep going to work and they want to achieve more than what they have. That is what makes this group special.”
Whitmire will be back in action on Monday, May 18 against Lewisville on the road for game two of the Upper State Championships. First pitch will be at 6:00 p.m.
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