GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave eighth grade softball team run ruled the Troy Lady Trojans 10-0 in GWOC tournament play Tuesday night at Greenville’s Stebbins Field with Kylie Hamm going the distance on the mound for the Lady Wave.
“Team effort,” said head coach Brady Baughn. “Good pitching – that always helps. It wasn’t our best game but we got out of jams. Middle of the lineup stepped up a lot at the plate. We scored a lot of runs in the middle of our lineup and they really came through for us.”
“We did what we do,” said assistant coach Corey Jenkinson. “We hit the ball, put the ball in play a lot tonight. Hit the ball hard and good things happen when you do that. Defensively we got timely outs when we needed outs.”
The Greenville eighth graders plated four runs in the opening inning and added two runs to the board in the second inning to jump out to a 6-0 lead.
“Abby Raffel had some key hits tonight in the middle of our lineup,” said Baughn.”She drove in some key runs for us – stepped up big when needed.”
The Lady Wave would not dent the plate in the third inning but added a run in the fourth to lead 7-0 after four complete.
Greenville got out of several jams in the game to keep the shutout intact with the ‘big one’ coming in the fourth with runners on second and third and no outs.
“A couple of times they had two runners on with no outs and we got out of jams,” noted Jenkinson. “Fourth inning we had second and third and no outs and we got out of that so just a bunch of good timely outs. If we don’t get those outs it could be a different ballgame.”
The Greenville girls tacked on three runs in their half of the fifth inning to put the game away and advance to the final four in GWOC tournament play.
“We’re going to send some girls up that will help out,” Coach Baughn said of the eighth graders advancing to high school next season. “A bunch of good team players and that has been our key to success.”
“They play a good team game,” added Baughn. “There are no selfish kids on the team. They go out and take care of business – somebody has a down night, somebody else picks them up, someone else steps up. That’s been the key to our success and they will do the same thing at the next level.”
