WINNSBORO – The Richard Winn Softball team did everything it could to push the best-of-three SCISA 1A state championship series with Holly Hill Academy to a third game Tuesday night but fell short.
The Raiders, who won the first game of the series 11-8 Monday at Holly Hill, rallied for three runs in the sixth and four more in the seventh to beat the Eagles 12-8 and win their second straight softball state championship and third in four years.
“They’re good hitters. They’ve got a good solid hitting team,” Richard Winn head coach Millie Lambert said about the Raiders (17-5). “Unfortunately we were struck with some injuries in the last game, which kind of played a big factor in how we shifted people around in positions they haven’t played before. I thought they did a good job. When they got the opportunity they got out there and gave us all they could.”
Freshman Haylee Ann Prevatt, who worked 4 2/3 innings of relief Tuesday on top of a 6-inning, 126-pitch performance Monday, entered the circle midway through the third inning when the Eagles led 5-4.
“She’s only a ninth grader but she’s strong, and she’s our best hitter,” Lambert said of Prevatt, who batted .611 for the season with six home runs and five triples. Prevatt had no official at-bats Tuesday, as Holly Hill opted to intentionally walk her four times.
“Strategically, genius for them. For us? Not so good,” Lambert said.
Despite Prevatt not being able to hit, the Eagles picked up four runs in the bottom of the first to take a 4-1 lead.
With Prevatt and Kaila McLean on base and nobody out, Margaret Swearingen’s double drove in Prevatt and sent McLean to third base. On the next play Meghan Guzzi grounded out but enabled McLean to score the second run of the inning and put Swearingen at third.
Swearingen scored the Eagles’ third run on a fielding error when Langley Thompson grounded into a fielder’s choice. After Abby Lewis drew a walk, Charlotte Lewis grounded out, scoring Thompson for the fourth run. Brantley Caulder grounded into another fielder’s choice that ended the inning.
McLean, Richard Winn’s starting pitcher, went down with an injury with just one out in the top of the third. McLean’s injury also meant a replacement in the batting order for the two-slot hitter, batting .500 on the season.
Richard Winn held a slight advantage in the second through four innings, even as Holly Hill picked at the Eagles’ 4-1 lead with two runs in the second, one in the third, and one in the fourth.
The Eagles scored a fifth run in the second and three more runs in the fourth to take an 8-5 lead going into the fifth. There, the bats fell silent. Richard Winn went hitless in the final three innings.
The Raiders got to work in the sixth inning, getting three runs on two hits and an Eagles error to tie the game at 8.
Richard Winn may not have had hits, but it loaded the bases on walks with nobody out in the sixth inning with Shelby Hinson pitching in relief.
The mood of the home crowd instantly changed when Hinson got Guzzi to hit into a 1-2-3 double play. Abby Lewis then hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to end the inning without any damage.
The play of the Holly Hill infield in the sixth set the table for another surge in the top of the seventh.
Prevatt walked leadoff batter Kaley Bell and Milly Kate Prescott, and Abby Burleson sacrifice bunted them over to second and third base.
The Eagles intentionally walked Wright to load the bases, then hit Hinson to enable Bell to score the go-ahead run.
Prescott scored Holly Hill’s tenth run on a passed ball as Kinlee Steigler batted. Then Steigler dropped a 2-run single into center field that broke the game open.
With a 12-8 lead, Hinson took the circle in the bottom of the seventh and sat the Eagles down in order to close out the win.
Holly Hill head coach Kallie Knight said the crowd saw the Raiders do what they have done all season—rally.
“We were playing a little bit uptight, made a bunch of errors that we don’t normally make, but that’s the thing about this team is that they do not give up,” Knight said. “It doesn’t matter what inning it is, what out it is, they just keep fighting and fighting and fighting. We’ve had girls that had problems bunting, then all of a sudden they laid down the bunt when it came time to do it.”
The end was not what Richard Winn wanted, but considering nobody expected the Eagles to be contenders at the beginning of the year, Lambert said this season was a turning point for the program.
“For the last several years we’ve been struggling mentally with fundamentals, but we finally came around,” Lambert said. “We played hard after finishing second in the region and pushed through, and here we are playing for a state championship. It’s been 35 years since we played for a state championship at Richard Winn.
Lambert, who was on the team that last competed for a state title, added that next year’s teams will well remember what was accomplished this year.
“It was very exciting for these girls to be back playing for it again,” she said, “and I know they’ll have many more years coming up where they’ll be playing for it.”
Friday
Jefferson Davis – 0-0-0 – 0-1-2
Richard Winn – 4-2-9 – 7-13-2
WP: Kaila McLean, 3 IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 3K.
R – Haylee Ann Prevatt 1-3, RBI. Kaila McLean 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI. Margaret Swearingen 1-2, RBI. Langley Thompson 1-2, RBI. Lillian Trapp 2-3, 2B, RBI. Meghan Guzzi 1-2, 2 RBI. CHarlotte Lewis 1-1, RBI.
Richard Winn – 2-4-0-0-3-0-2 – 11-9-8
Holly Hill – 4-2-0-0-1-2-1 – 10-6-2
WP: Haylee Ann Prevatt, 6 IP, 5H, 9R, 0ER, 2BB, 6K.
R –Haylee Ann Prevatt 3-5, HR, 3 RBI. Kaila McLean 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI. Margaret Swearingen 1-4, 2 RBI. Langley Thompson 1-3, RBI. Addison Trapp 1-3, RBI.
H – Shelby Hinson 2B, 2 RBI. Taylor Wright 2-5, 2B.
Saturday
WW King – 0-0-0-1-0-0-0 – 1-6-1
Richard Winn – 2-0-0-0-2-1-X – 5-6-1
WP: Kaila McLean, 7 IP, 6H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 5K.
K – Kenzie Morse 2B.
R –Charlotte Lewis 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI. Abby Lewis 1-2, 2B. Haylee Ann Prevatt 1-2, 2B, RBI. Margaret Swearingen 1-3. Brantley Caulder 1-3, RBI. Lillian Trapp 1-2.
Monday
Richard Winn – 0-1-2-0-2-0-3 – 8-5-3
Holly Hill – 4-2-0-2-3-0-X – 11-10-4
WP: Shelby Hinson, 4 IP, 2H, 5R, 1ER, 7BB, 4K.
R – Kaila McLean 2-4, RBI. Meghan Guzzi 2-4. Margaret Swearingen 1-4.
H – Milly Kate Prescott 4-4, 2B (2), 3 RBI. Peyton Strickland 2B. Taylor Wright 2B. Abby Burleson 3 RBI.
Tuesday
Holly Hill – 1-2-1-1-0-3-4 – 12-10-6
Richard Winn – 4-1-0-3-0-0-0 – 8-4-4
WP: Shelby Hinson, 2 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 1K.
H –Kaley Bell 2-3, 3B. Milly Kate Prescott 2-4. Abby Burleson 3B. Shelby Hinson 2B. Kinlee Steigler 3 RBI. Taylor Wright 2 RBI.
R – Margaret Swearingen 3-3, 2B, 3 RBI. Lillian Trapp 1-4.