Clover Sting savors championship

After falling to York Mayhem 10-9 in the first game of Monday’s 16U Girls’ Softball Tournament, the Clover Sting rebounded in the second game to win the championship 8-5.

In the second game, the Sting moved ahead 1-0 in the top of the second inning when Kensley Jenkins scored on a wild pitch.

Then the Sting built a 5-1 lead in the third inning.

Raygan Michaels scored on a wild pitch, and Caroline Thompson’s ground ball sent Brenna Crisp across the plate.

Later in the inning, Jenkins’ RBI single scored Destiny Komar. Casey Eagen, who was the winning pitcher in the tournament title game, had a key double in the inning.

After Mayhem sliced the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth, the Sting answered in the top of the fifth inning, with Thompson and Eagen scoring, pushing the Sting ahead 7-3.

Mayhem scored in the bottom of the fifth but the Sting stretched the lead once again in the top of the sixth when McKenzie Johnson scored after reaching base on an infield single.

Mayhem scored a run in the final inning, but the Sting held on for the 8-5 win.

“We came back pretty good,” Sting head coach Pete Clapp said after the awards ceremony in front of home plate. “It was a tough fought game. The Mayhem team, they are a good team, well coached.”

Clapp lauded the Sting players.

“We played a heck of a game,” Clapp amid a post-game celebration that included dumping icy water on the head coach.

Clapp credited the Mayhem team for rallying from behind to hand the Sting its first loss in the first game of the double-elimination tournament.

“We made a couple errors in the first game that were costly,” said the Sting coach. “We paid for it when they came back and beat us, 10-9. We played real hard in the second game and pulled it out. I was real proud of our team.”

In the first game, the Sting plated three runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Crisp walked and later scored the first run of the game. Later in the inning, Jenkins’ ground ball scored Eagen. Thompson scored the final run of the inning, staking the Sting to a 3-0 lead.

The Sting expanded its lead to 5-0 in the third inning, during which Allison Clapp scored on a wild pitch and Jenkins’ ground ball scored Komar.

The Sting scored three runs in the fifth inning, with Crisp, Thompson and Clapp crossing home plate. Tiffany English scored the Sting’s final run in the sixth, expanding the lead to 9-3.

But Mayhem mounted a rally in the seventh, prevailing 10-9 and forcing a second game to decide the tournament championship.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Clover Sting savors championship."