By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SAND ROCK – The Sand Rock Lady Wildcats and Piedmont Lady Bulldogs were coming off two totally different weekends at the Albertville Tournament. Sand Rock went 4-1 while the Lady Bulldogs were 0-4. The reason for Piedmont’s disappointing weekend was the amount of runners they left on base.
But Monday began a new week and a fresh start.
Leadoff batter Sarah Goss and pitcher Savannah Smith made sure a repeat of Piedmont’s weekend wasn’t in store. Goss led off the game with a triple down the right field line and scored on Savannah Smith’s double to right.
After a Smith solo homer to left center tied the game in the top of the sixth, Goss tripled again in the top of the eighth and scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball as Class 3A, No. 4 Piedmont shook off its tough weekend and rallied for a 5-2 victory over the Class 2A, No. 3 Lady Wildcats.
“I know (Sand Rock pitcher Jadyn Foster) had very good movement and very good speed, so I knew I had to be on time and early,” Goss said. “I just knew I had to get on base and score.”
Goss finished the game going 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of runs for Piedmont (29-14).
“Sarah is a quiet leader. She doesn’t say a whole lot, but there’s nobody who plays as hard as Sarah Goss does,” Piedmont coach Rachel Smith said. “She leads by example. You’re going to get her best effort every time she steps inside those white lines.”
Monday was the type of performance Coach Smith was looking for after the Lady Bulldogs’ tough weekend.
“We had three or four games in a row where we left like nine, seven, 12 and nine runners on base. If you leave that many on base in a game, it’s tough to win a ball game regardless of how good your defense or your pitching is,” Coach Smith said. “That was the goal today, to make sure when we had runners on base to have productive at-bats. We feel like other aspects of our game are pretty solid. We just want to keep everybody sharp with productive at-bats.”
Sand Rock (34-8) rallied to take a 2-1 lead on a run-scoring triple to right by Peyton Johnson in the bottom of the fourth and a solo home run to left center in the fifth by Katelyn StClair, but Savannah Smith responded by leading off the top of the sixth with a solo blast of her own to left center.
“You’ve just got to rebound and respond,” said Savannah Smith, who went 3-for-3 at the plate with an intentional walk. “You can always shake your head and put your head down, but it’s the way you respond to stuff like that that makes the difference in a ball game.”
The younger Smith then got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh.
With one out, nine-hole hitter Bailey Kilgore reached on an error at second. Sherina Foster then doubled to left to bring StClair back up to the plate. Savannah Smith intentionally walked StClair to load the bases for Jadyn Foster and Emma Sipsy.
The strategy worked, as the Piedmont pitcher struck out Foster looking and got Sipsy swinging to force extra innings.
“That was huge,” Coach Smith said. “We knew if we walked StClair it would give us a force at the plate to make the play a little easier on our defense, but we also knew by doing that we were going to have to face Foster, who’s an excellent hitter.
“That’s just back-to-the-wall grit. I know they’ve got that, and I’m proud of our team for having that grit when they’re backed into a corner. That’s the sign of a good team.”
“We knew they were really good hitters so we put the three-hole (StClair) on to see if we could get the four to roll over and get a ground ball,” Savannah Smith said. “We struck her out and ended up getting out of a jam.”
Goss led off the top of the eighth with another triple, this time to left center. She later scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball. The Lady Bulldogs scored two more unearned runs in the inning to take a three-run advantage.
Savannah Smith then retired the Lady Wildcats in order for the final to earn the win. She tossed all eight innings, surrendering a pair of runs on eight hits with a walk and 12 strikeouts.
Jadyn Foster also went the distance in a tough-luck loss. She allowed just two earned runs on six hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts.
“I expected it to be a battle,” Sand Rock coach Josh Bates said. “I thought both pitchers did a great job. I knew it would be a pitching battle, a low-scoring game. It was going to come down to who got the timely hits down the stretch or who made the mistake. Those are the things we’ll look at. I told our girls we grow and get better because of those kinds of games. We learn from it. I learn from it. If we’re in that situation again, we may do a little something different to maybe change the outcome.”
Sherina Foster led the Lady Wildcats at the plate with a pair of hits, including a double. Jadyn Foster, StClair, Sipsy, Johnson, Aliyah King and Lacey Barnette each finished with a hit.
“I was proud of our girls for just staying the course and fighting,” Bates said. “We were in a spot to take the lead and a spot there to win it. We had our chances, but they made the plays down the stretch. Our kids battled hard and their kids battled hard. It was just a good ball game.”
