Gallery by Karen Akers
South Charleston – After waiting 10 years to return to the state tournament, Shady Spring’s stay was considerably shorter, lasting around seven hours.
After falling 5-0 to Winfield earlier in the day, the Tigers struggled to string together hits and get timely outs in their elimination game, falling 6-1 to four-time defending champion Herbert Hoover Wednesday evening at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
Shady Spring standout Paige Maynard, who finished her career with 15 strikeouts against the Huskies, was hit hard in the second and third innings, yielding four extra-base hits that powered Hoover’s victory.
“We just talked about not chasing,” Hoover head coach Missy Smith said. “That’s really hard against a great pitcher like (Maynard). If you get ahead she has to come in and that’s hard because she does a great job working the edges of the zone and when you get ahead and she has to get a little closer – some pitchers have to take a little bit off of it and it allows you to get your bat on it and hit the ball hard. Luckily we found some gaps and got one over and did some damage with some runners on base.”
The wheels loosened when an error at second base allowed Hoover a runner on first to open the second inning. A one-out double followed and Kirstin Wehrle drew first blood with a two-run triple. A Hannah Shamblin groundout accounted for the third and final run of the frame, but the inning foretold the immediate future.
After Maynard retired the first two batters she faced in the third via strikeouts, she ran into trouble.
Grayson Buckner tripled down the line in right and Abby Hanson walked, setting the stage for Brooklyn Huffman who doubled in the previous inning.
She did herself two better, launching a three-run blast over the fence in left-center to make it 6-0 Hoover.
“They were able to be selective early,” Shady head coach Donald Barnett said. “They were in good position in the count to where we had to throw strikes or give up a walk and that patience and selectivity paid off for them huge and they were able to put the ball in play quite a bit and a couple times pretty solid and the rest is history.”
Shady threatened to get two back when Maynard and Olivia Barnett hit back-to-back singles in the bottom of the fourth but a soft pop out and a strikeout diffused that threat. The Tigers didn’t show a pulse again until the seventh when Barnett crushed an opposite field double, scoring on a Haley Wood single, accounting for their only run.
For Shady head coach Donald Barnett the end was a somber one, bringing to a close the high school career of his daughter as well as fellow seniors Emma Cyrus, Paige Maynard and Hadley Wood for the final time. His daughter, Olivia, finished the state tournament stint with a 4-for-6 showing in two games at the plate.
“She did what Olivia does,” Coach Barnett said. “She’s hit the ball hard all year. It’s probably more special for me to see her finish her career at the state tournament and hit the ball well. We wish we could’ve made it a little further but I’ll tell you we stepped into a powerhouse Winfield team and another powerhouse Herbert Hoover team and I wouldn’t take anything away from what either of those teams have done today. They both played excellent ball and if we have to go out, this is an okay way to go out.”
Hoover advances to Thursday morning’s elimination game where it will face the loser of Wednesday night’s matchup between Oak Glen and Winfield.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
HH: 033 000 0 – 6 7 0
SS: 000 000 1 – 1 5 1
WP: Buckner, LP: Maynard
Hitting – HH: Shamblin 1-4, Woody 1-4, Buckner 1-4 (3B), Huffman 2-2 (2B, HR, 3 RBI), Wehrle 1-3 (3B, 2 RBI), Shamblin (RBI), Fix 1-3; SS: Barnett 2-3 (2B), Maynard 1-3, Wood 1-3 (RBI), Lawson 1-3.
