Breaking records: Varsity softball smashes three HRs
Published 9:01 am Thursday, March 24, 2022
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record
This is what makes sports the greatest reality show. There is no script and sometimes no logic.
Reagan’s softball team won 8-7 over Forbush, which beat Davie 3-2. Reagan played tough in a 6-3 loss to powerful East Forsyth, which belted Davie 11-0.
Davie and Reagan met March 15 in Pfafftown. Did the Raiders beat Davie for the first time? Not a chance. Davie romped 15-3 while putting up crooked numbers in five of seven at-bats and cranking three home runs.
“We came out aggressive at the plate in the first inning. That set the tone,” coach Debbie Evans said.
A five-run first saw London Dirks connect for a two-run homer, and three batters later, Ashley Bledsoe went deep with one aboard.
In a three-run second, Leah Grimes mashed a two-run shot, giving Davie three bombs in 14 at-bats.
Davie pushed the margin to 10-1 in the third, and Reagan was on its way to loss No. 23 to the War Eagles, who improved to 2-1 in the Central Piedmont Conference.
Summer Simpson (3 for 5, 2 RBIs) and Carleigh Croom (3-4) led an 18-hit attack against two Reagan pitchers. Davie got two hits from Melanie Gobble (2-3), Sydney Dirks (2-5, double), L. Dirks (2-5, five RBIs) and Audrea Fowler (2-5).
“They settled down,” assistant Fred Smith said. “Everybody was swinging for the fence early in the year. I’ve been telling them to be team hitters and put good swings on good pitches. Don’t try to hit every ball out of the ballpark. When they did that, they ended up hitting three out by taking good swings. Everybody on this team can hit long balls, but you typically do that when you’re not trying to.”
Addie Hendrix was the winning pitcher, holding Reagan to one run over 4.2 innings. Riley Potts and Kaylyn Nuckols recorded the final seven outs.
ND 14, Davie 12
If you like offense, this was a true classic, with both teams holding three-run leads in the nonconference game at Davie on March 17.
It was bittersweet for the War Eagles, who put up the most runs against North in eight years but fell short when North scored the game’s final two runs.
“Both teams were hitting well and battling back and forth,” Evans said. “We got some timely, clutch hits throughout the game. We just came up a little short.”
In the first, Davie wiped out North’s 3-0 lead with three runs, thanks to Simpson’s two-run homer.
In the fourth, Davie charged back from 9-6 down to 11-9 ahead. S. Dirks’ three-run double and McKenzie Mixon’s two-run single highlighted the rally.
Simpson went yard for the second time in the fifth, tying the game at 12.
North pulled out a fun, exhausting, dizzying game in its final at-bat. The No. 9 batter started the top of the seventh with a single. Another single followed, but the next two batters were retired. The cleanup batter, though, roped a two-run double to make it 14-12.
Davie went down 1-2-3 in its final at-bat.
The top three batters in the order fueled the Davie barrage. Gobble (3-4, three runs, double), Simpson (3-3, four runs, three RBIs, two homers) and S. Dirks (2-4, three runs, three RBIs, two doubles) accounted for eight of Davie’s 11 hits. North countered with 14 hits and three homers.
In two games, Simpson raised her average from .266 to .434. Her first homer was a bullet to left. Her second one was a blast to right-center.
“She was really tuned in all night,” Evans said. “She’s seeing the ball well.”
Even though there were 26 runs, it was a clean game. Both teams only made one error. It was the most runs an opponent has dropped on North in 183 games. (North lost 12-3 to Alexander Central in the 2014 playoffs.)
“Hopefully this kind of game/competition will pay off for us later in the season or playoffs,” Evans said.
Notes: North improved to 3-2. … This was the first Davie-N. Davidson game since April of 2018. … North has won eight of the last nine against Davie.
Davie 15, Tabor 0
The War Eagles set a program record for homers in a game at Mt. Tabor on March 18. Fowler went deep twice and S. Dirks, Mixon and Grimes left the yard as Davie whipped the low-profile Spartans in four innings.
Fowler went 3 for 3 with three runs and three RBIs. Getting two hits were L. Dirks (2-3, double) and Grimes (2-3, two RBIs).
The old record for single-game homers was four, which was done multiple times. Seven different War Eagles have homered a total of 12 times, led by Fowler’s three.
Notes: Davie met Tabor for the first time since ‘17; its series winning streak is 32. … Tabor fell to 1-4. … Davie improved to 5-4, 3-1 in the CPC.