WHITMIRE, S.C. — The Lady Wolverines dream season continues as they punched their ticket to the 1A SCHSL Softball State Championship series with a huge win on Memorial Day. Whitmire(23-5, 12-1 region 1-A) defeated Lewisville(25-7, 14-0 region 2-A) 2-1 on Monday, May 25 to win Upper State and advance to the state championship series.
The Lady Wolverines and the Lady Lions met for the fourth time this season and a trip to the state championship was on the line. Whitmire won a thriller in their last meeting on May 19 by scoring two runs late in the seventh inning to secure a 4-3 win. They were looking to do the same thing again and had their ace Kenleigh Epps in the circle.
It was a pitcher’s duel between Epps and Lewisville’s Abby Barnes to start the game. Neither pitcher gave up hardly anything to their opponent throughout the first five innings of the game. Whitmire managed to get a runner on base at the bottom of the first inning, but they could bring the runner in for a score.
Also, both defenses were stingy and supported their starting pitchers. Alleigh Corley would make an unbelievable diving catch from behind the plate to secure the final out at the top of the fourth inning to preserve the scoreless game after Laney Lambert hit a triple for Lewisville.
The game was still scoreless at the top of the fifth inning, and then the Lady Lions was able to finally get something going at the plate. Epps walked the first batter she faced in the inning to put one runner on base. Freshman infielder Layla Harmon blasts a ball to the outfield to put two runners on base for Lewisville, and now Epps was facing a little bit of trouble.
Gabby McIntyre sends a ball deep into the outfield for the RBI double to break the scoring drought. Whitmire would limit the damage and get out of the inning only trailing 1-0.
Neither team would get anything going in the sixth inning and the score would remain 1-0 heading into the final inning. The home team would have one more at bat at the bottom of the seventh inning to either win it or force the game into extra innings. They decided that they would win it and Corley would reach base on a walk. Lewisville’s coaching staff didn’t want to chance it and decided to make a pitching change. The Lady Lions head coach will be thinking about this decision all off-season.
Chloe Hix would reach base on a walk after the pitching change. Brielle Whitmire would come lay down a perfect bunt to reach base and load the bases for the Lady Wolverines. Kinsley Hood would hit a high pop fly into the outfield and Corley would make another gutsy play by tagging up and safely sliding into home to tie the game at 1-1.
Then, Hix would make a heads up to seal the game for Whitmire. She would take off for home plate after the Lewisville’s catcher missed the ball on a strike three call and let it get behind her. Hix took off and made it home safely in dramatic fashion to win the game. Lewisville coaching staff attempted to contest the call with the umpires but they were unsuccessful.
“I told the the girls before it started was, ‘We scored two on them the other day at the top of the seventh to win the game. We don’t give up even though we have another game in our back pocket. Lets try to get after it and find a way to score one run to tie it and see what happens.’ But dang it, they bought into it and you see what happened,” said head coach Andrew Campbell.
The Lady Wolverines softball has been knocking on the door for the last few seasons and now they have finally kicked it down. The entire community was behind this group of young ladies and they showed up in large numbers to witness this Memorial Day Miracle!
“It means a lot but I would be amidst to say it was all me. It’s not me, it’s all them. Them girls play! They have been out here since January putting in the work. They have been the ones to work and build this, I have just been the one driving the bus. Coach P, Coach Kaylin, Tiff, Coach Addis and everyone makes it easier to where we could do the things that we do. The girls buy into and again, it’s them that has got us here not me,” said Campbell.
Whitmire’s first game against Hannah-Pamplico was supposed to be played on Tuesday, May 26, but it was postponed. The first game of the state championship series will now be played on Wednesday, May 27 and the second game will be played on Thursday, May 28 at 6:00 p.m. Game three will be played on Saturday, May 30 if necessary. Please come out to support these young ladies! It was a great atmosphere on Memorial Day and they will need that same energy again this Thursday.
Leave a Reply