Southwest holds on for 2-1 win over East
The Southwest team from Calhoun, La., got a strong pitching performance from Grace Thaxton and some timely hitting to top the East squad 2-1 at the Senior League Softball World Series on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Coastal Point • Jesse Pryor
Southwest’s Devin Mitchell makes contact on a pitch against USA East on Tuesday, Aug. 10.
The game started out well for USA East (Haverstraw, N.Y.). Pitcher Krystn Benson struck out the side in the top of the first inning and, though East went down in order in the bottom half of the inning, they made solid contact against Haxton.
Caitlin Herbet led off with a walk, and promptly stole second. With one out, Katie Killian reached on a bloop infield hit. Devin Mitchell followed with a great bunt to load the bases, and Amelia Montgomery drove in the first run of the game when she drew a walk. Benson was able to escape further damage when she struck out the next two batters.
The Southwest struck for another run in the fourth inning. Alex Privitor was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and was replaced at first by pinch-runner Kari Payton. Killian and Mitchell moved Payton to third with back-to-back sacrifice bunts, and Montgomery notched her second RBI of the game with a clean two-out single to center.
The East tried to get something going in the bottom half of the inning when Taylor Corretjer singled to right-center and moved to second after a hard-hit out by Brianna Rivera. But Thaxton was able to strike out Benson with two outs, to quiet the East’s rally.
Coastal Point • Jesse Pryor
East pitcher Krystn Benson throws against Southwest.
It looked like Southwest was going to tack on another run in the top of the fifth inning. Rosa Bryant led off by reaching on an error, and promptly stole second and third with nobody out. But again Benson rose to the challenge and struck out the next three batters to keep her team in the game.
The score remained 2-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh, when the East made one final push. Benson led off with a single, and pinch-runner Caitlyn Reilly moved to second on a groundout. Tiffany Alliano knocked her in with a clutch single to move the score to 2-1, but Thaxton was able to close the door with a strikeout.
