Pioneers are Utah bound
SMC softball clinches Region 10 title, trip to JUCO World Series
Published: Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 11:16 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 11:16 p.m.
Anticipating the final out, a pop fly to left still high in the air, Spartanburg Methodist softball players on the field started moving that way and those on the bench were ready to sprint out there, too.
Kelli Shealy made the catch and within seconds was under a pile of celebration.
SMC is headed to the NJCAA World Series.
The Pioneers beat Pitt Community College, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon in Louisburg, N.C., sweeping through the Region 10 tournament unbeaten for the championship and automatic berth in the junior college World Series. They will take a 14-game winning streak into that event, which will be played May 14-17 in St. George, Utah.
"It's pretty special," said SMC head coach Thad Fox, whose teams finished runner-up in the previous four tournaments. "I kept hearing the kids say, 'We want to win it for you. We want to win it for you.' But I didn't want them to win it for me. I wanted them to win it for themselves. This will be one of the best experiences they'll have in their lives, I'm sure."
Pitt had the tying run at the plate with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. But SMC second baseman Hannah Knight snagged a line drive, pitcher Carson O'Donald got a strikeout and then came the fly ball to Shealy.
"Everybody was on a dead sprint to tackle her," Fox said. "I had heard them talking. Wherever the last out was made, that's where they were going."
Emily Kale (Shelby, NC) pitched four innings for the win and O'Donald went the last three for the save.
SMC hit home runs in the first two innings to take a 3-0 lead. Shealy had a solo shot and then in the next frame, after a hit by Logan Wade (Union County), freshman Kolby Harrison had a two-run blast for her first collegiate homer. The Pioneers added another run in the third to make it 4-0 on a double by Caroline Hill (Chapman) and an RBI single by Wade.
"We hit some balls hard early and probably should've had a few more runs," Fox said. "When it was 4-0, we felt good. Then I think we got a little bit tight. I could see it. They were starting to get big-eyed. We tried to talk about taking one out, one pitch at a time."
Pitt scored single runs in the third and fourth to cut its deficit in half. SMC got one back in the seventh on another RBI hit from Harrison.
Fox said he stayed in the dugout to watch his team celebrate before finally going out to join them.
"That was a great moment," he said. "No doubt about it."