WAGENER-SALLEY 15, WARE SHOALS 14 (8 innings)
WAGENER — There were plenty of opportunities for Wagener-Salley's young softball players to hang their heads and lower their gloves during a marathon Class A playoff game Saturday.
There was the tight strike zone – which hampered both teams – leading to walked batters that kept giving visiting Ware Shoals opportunities to score runs despite not putting the ball in play.
There was the Hornets' five-run fourth inning, which included four walks and two infield singles, that erased the War Eagles' 3-0 lead.
There was the four-run sixth inning, with five walks, a hit batter and an infield single, that let Ware Shoals creep back to within 11-9.
Then there was the five-run seventh, again without a ball leaving the infield, to send it to extra innings tied up at 14.
Ample chances to hang their heads over the course of 3 and a half hours Saturday.
But they didn't.
Top-seeded Wagener-Salley was a walk-off winner on LeAnn Rawls' hit in the bottom of the eighth, sending the War Eagles into Wednesday's District I championship following a wild, contentious 15-14 win over Ware Shoals.
"While the win is great today, I'm just super proud of how they came together and played as a team," said head coach Jennifer Starnes, whose starting lineup is mostly composed of freshmen and middle-schoolers. "... For them, they just kept pushing hard. I'm just excited for the girls more than anything else."
Rawls is one of those freshmen, and she drove in Charley Fields in the bottom of the eighth for the win. Fittingly, Fields led off the inning by drawing a walk.
The strike zone was as tight as the game was, and the Ware Shoals dugout was visibly – and vocally – frustrated by it.
Neither team benefited much from it – Ware Shoals drew 16 walks compared to Wagener-Salley's 11, and several came with the bases loaded.
"Luckily, we capitalized on a few more hits than they got ... so that helped us out a lot," Starnes said.
Gracie Starnes started the game in the circle and led off the bottom of the first with an inside-the-park home run to give the War Eagles a 1-0 lead.
They struck for two more runs in the third by making hustle plays. Rawls hit a grounder to third with runners on first and second and nobody out, and she hustled up the line to beat the throw and deny Ware Shoals a double play. Starnes, who moved to second on contact, motored to third as the throw went across the diamond and then scored on a wild pitch. Cameron Jackson, who played strong defense all day at shortstop, hit a deep RBI double to push the lead to 3-0.
Then came the walks in the top of the fourth, as Ware Shoals loaded the bases with no outs thanks to three of them and an infield single. A run scored on a wild pitch, followed by two bases-loaded walks, and another infield single made it 5-3 Hornets.
Wagener-Salley answered with five more runs, all coming with two outs, in the home half of the inning. Imani Brown drew a bases-loaded walk of her own for a 6-5 lead, then Katelyn Hearn doubled in two more runs to make it 8-5.
The lead grew to 11-5 in the fifth, and they could've had a chance to potentially end the game when they loaded the bases – instead, the lead was cut to 11-9 in the top of the sixth, only to swell to 14-9 in the bottom half.
The War Eagles just needed three outs from there to end the game, but the Hornets sent seven batters to the plate and cut the deficit to one before the War Eagles could get the first out of the inning. A hit batter with the bases loaded tied it, and the War Eagles went quickly in the bottom of the seventh to send it to extras.
An immediate bonus of winning the 3-and-a-half hour marathon is that the War Eagles won't have to play an elimination game Monday. That will be played by Ware Shoals and North, and the winner will come to Wagener on Wednesday and will need to win twice.
