Raegan Auton (left), Faith Manly (9), Courtney Watts (17) and Erin Goff (3) savor the moment prior to their senior night game.
BLYTHEWOOD-The Blythewood softball team tried to spark a rally several times against Spring Valley Tuesday night.
But on Senior Night at the Blythewood softball field, Jordan Bostic and the Vikings stayed one step ahead of the Bengals.
Bostic went 4-for-4 with a 3-run home run in the third inning to give Spring Valley an 11-5 win to close out the regular season.
“It just seemed we were one hit away, one catch away,” Blythewood head coach Jordan Atkinson said. “We had several 0-2 (in the count) hits, and that can’t happen. We weren’t very selective at all (at the plate), and in the third inning they batted through their lineup.” Blythewood (4-8 in Region 5-5A, 7-13 overall) opens the playoffs at Ashley
Ridge Thursday in the District V Tournament. West Florence and Lexington will also play in that bracket.
The Bengals took a 1-0 lead on Spring Valley in the bottom of the second inning. Grace Campbell led off with a double, moved to third on Savannah Simpson’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on Courtney Watts’ infield groundout.
Faith Manley struck out to retire the side.
The lead didn’t last long.
Spring Valley sent 10 batters to the plate in the third. With two runners on and nobody out, Bostic got things started when she swung on a 2-1 pitch and sent it over the leftfield fence to give the Vikings a 3-1 lead. Spring Valley got two more runs in the inning to take a 5-1 lead.
“In the first game they didn’t have Edgerton (who went 2-for-3) and Bostic,” Atkinson said, referring to Blythewood’s 10-2 victory March 28. “We let them control the game.”
Blythewood rallied for two runs in the bottom of the third, but got cut short.
Reagan Auton drew a walk, Emily Bush singled and Parker drew a walk to load the bases with nobody out. That set up Sammy Hall’s 2-run single to cut Spring Valley’s lead to 5-3.
Unfortunately for the Bengals, that’s all they could get. With Hall and Parker aboard and nobody out, Spring Valley retired the next three batters to strand the tying runs.
The Vikings then got a run in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and three in the seventh to take an 11-3 lead.
Blythewood, which stranded two baserunners in the sixth when they were down 8-3, got a hot start in the final inning.
Bush singled to lead off the inning and Parker doubled her home to make it 11-4 Vikings. Hall reached on a fielder’s choice that struck Parker from the bases. Erin Goff was hit by a pitch and Grace Campbell singled in Hall to make it 11-5, but that was the most Blythewood could get.
Savannah Simpson struck out and Courtney Watts hit into a game-ending fielder’s choice.
“You leave runners on base and make errors, it’s not a success,” Atkinson said. “Not a success.”
Spring Valley 0-0-5-1-2-0-3-11 12 0
Blythewood: 0-1-2-0-0-0-2-5 8 3
WP: Molly Coleman LP: Emily Bush
Hitters: Spring Valley – Jordan Bostic 4-4, HR. Molly Coleman 2-3, 2B. Alexis Edgerton 2-3. Mary Freeman 2-3. Jade McKie 2B. Blythewood – Kendall Parker 2-3, 2B. Grace Campbell 2-3, 2B. Emily Bush 2-4.
