The Bladen County 10U All-Stars won the State-Wide Activities Committee (SWAC) State Softball Tournament for the first time in six years by defeating a gritty Edenton squad 6-0 in five innings Sunday.
Rylee Chadwick continued her dominance on the mound by pitching a complete game no-hitter and striking out twelve batters, while only walking two on a hot July day. Bladen County’s infield defense was outstanding giving Edenton no chance for a victory.
Chadwick blew away the first three batters with her fastest pitches of the tournament in the top of the first inning. Bladen County went quietly in the first inning as Chadwick made her first out of the tournament on a hard grounder to the third baseman.
Opposing pitcher and clean-up batter Karley Byrd of Edenton placed the only batted balls in play against Chadwick. A soft grounder back to Chadwick in the second inning and a hard grounder that was scooped up easily by Zoe Smith in the fifth inning.
Addie Bowen charged a bunt flawlessly in the fourth inning, and McKenzie Singletary came off the bag to make the tag at first despite a charging runner.
Bladen County started the scoring in the second inning as Singletary and Lainey Hughes drew lead-off walks. Both runners advanced to second and third respectively on passed balls. Singletary attempted to steal home on the throw back to the pitcher but realized she could not make it. However the catcher threw the ball off her back allowing her and Hughes to score and giving Bladen County a 2-0 lead.
The Bladen team scored four more runs in the third inning. Lena Trinidad led the inning off with a walk, and Laci Storms entered the game as a pinch-runner. Storms stole second and after a strikeout advanced to third on a single smoked up the middle by Bowen.
Chadwick picked up the run batted in as Storms tagged from third on a shallow sacrifice fly to rightfield. Emma Turbeville, Singletary, and Hughes ripped consecutive singles to score the remaining three runs.
Singletary scored two runs to lead the team. Bowen, Turbeville, Hughes, and Storms scored one time each. Bowen, Turbeville, Singletary, and Hughes connected for one hit each.
The team would like to thank all of the contributions made for them by special donors. Team members are as follows: Addie Bowen, Rylee Chadwick, Molly Evans, Gracie Faircloth, Lainey Hughes, Karli Priest, McKenzie Singletary, Zoe Smith, Laci Storms, Madison Taylor, Lena Trinidad and Emma Turbeville. Coaches are Matt Chadwick, Barry Priest and Brad Turbeville.
About Author
