By John Clark
BLADENBORO – Senior Gracie Faircloth celebrated ‘Senior Night’ by pitching a 4-hit shutout and striking out 6 batters to lead West Bladen to a 10-0 Southeastern Athletic Conference softball victory over Red Springs.
Coach Kaitlin Sykes’ Lady Knights finished regular season play with a 6-4 SAC record and evened their overall record at 7-7. West Bladen will now wait for the Class 2A playoff brackets to be released Monday to find out where they will open the Class 2A playoffs Tuesday night.
Sophomore Kali Allen drilled a triple to the fence in left-center field to begin the West 2nd inning. After sophomore Natalee Sykes walked, Allen darted home on a wild pitch with the game’s 1st run. One out later Sykes scored on Brenna Hester’s fielder’s choice.
Megan Pait walked, then scored when Faircloth hammered a triple to right-center field. Junior Holland Davis ripped a 1-hopper off the 3rd baseman that scored Faircloth for a 4-0 lead.
Allen smashed a double to center field in the 3rd inning and scored when junior Marlene Crabtree lined a single to center field to bump the lead to 5-0.
Pait walked to start the 4th inning, and Faircloth and Davis both launched fly balls to right that were dropped and loaded the bases. Pait dashed home on a wild pitch. Junior Hallie Bass launched a sacrifice fly to left that scored Faircloth.
Allen roped a single to center field, however Davis was thrown out at the plate on the play. Walters raced home on a wild pitch. Sykes beat out an infield hit, and Crabtree yanked a single to left that scored Sykes. Hester reached base on an error that scored Sykes and boosted the lead to 10-0.
Allen batted 3-for-3 with a triple, a double and 3 runs scored to lead the Lady Knight hitters. Crabtree finished 2-for-3 at the plate with 2 runs batted in. Faircloth tripled, had an RBI and scored 2 runs. Pait, the other West senior, singled and scored twice. Sykes and Davis added 1 single each. Bass and Hester had 1 RBI each. Sykes scored 2 runs, and Walters scored 1 run.
Telinda Pate pitched all 4 innings for Red Springs. Pate, Gabby Locklear, Brynia McLean and Makayla Hunt had 1 hit each for the Lady Red Devils.
Red Springs 000 00 — 0-4-4
West Bladen 041 5x — 10-9-0
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