Fort Mill softball shuts out York

Freshman starting pitcher Bella Roy struck out 15 in a complete game shutout to lead Fort Mill to a 7-0 softball victory over York on Tuesday night. Roy surrendered six hits and walked three, but she pitched around four errors and out of two bases loaded jams. York left 13 runners on base for the game.

“This is a team (York) that beat Gaffney and was leading Nation Ford,” Fort Mill coach Chuck Stegall said. “We were mentally preparing for a very tough game.”

York left the bases loaded in the top of the first inning after two base hits and a hit batter. Roy struck out opposing pitcher Taylor Wilkerson to end the inning.

“I think Bella may have missed her spot three times all night,” Stegall said.

Payton Lemire pounced on an opportunity in the home first when she took Wilkerson deep to left field for a one-out home run and a 2-0 Fort Mill lead.

“The confidence changed right then,” Stegall said.

Roy recorded her first six outs of the game and seven of the first eight for the Yellow Jackets by strikeout.

Fort Mill loaded the bases with no outs in the third on a sharp base hit back up the middle by Julia Rajcok, who was 2-for-4 and scored twice, and two consecutive walks. Cassie McInerney’s bunt went over Wilkerson’s head and dropped for a base hit to score Rajcok and make it 3-0. After a fly-out to left for the first out, centerfielder Kirsten Loftin made a nice running catch of a Roy line drive and doubled off the runner at second to end the inning with minimal damage.

York once again loaded the bases in the fourth and got nothing to show for it. Wilkerson led off with a bloop base hit to center. An out later, Megan Sutphin walked and Meg McGarity reached on an infield hit to load the bases. However, Roy struck out Loftin and got Makala Love to ground to third for the third out.

Brittany Ervin replaced Wilkerson on the mound in the fourth for the Cougars. Wilkerson went three innings and allowed three runs on five hits and three walks, striking out two.

The defense did not help Ervin. Halcom led off with a single and went to second on a misplay in right. She went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Sydney Adams’ sacrifice fly to right. Taylor Rayborn reached on an error by the shortstop, stole second, and then raced all the way home when the throw went into the outfield to make it 5-0. Ervin gave up four runs, but only one earned, in three innings. She gave up four hits but her defense made four errors behind her. She did throw four wild pitches and she struck out two.

Roy pitched around two errors to strike out the side and strand another runner at third in the York fifth. She had 11 strikeouts after five.

“We had three mental errors tonight but that’s stuff we feel we’ll be able to address in practice tomorrow,” said Stegall.

The Yellow Jackets added two more in the home half of the inning. McInerney reached on a dropped fly ball in right and went to second. Kennedy Wolf drove her in with a single to left-center. Clancy Kerr followed with a double just inside the first base bag that rolled all the way to the right-field corner. That gave Fort Mill a 7-0 lead.

The Cougars got the first two runners on in the sixth but again failed to push one across. Cayla Campbell led off with an infield hit to third and Sutphin walked. Roy retired the next three in order to strand the runners. Sutphin reached base in all three of her at-bats.

Just for good measure, Roy pitched out of trouble one more time in the seventh to close it out in style. Samantha Van Camp reached on an error by the second baseman to start the inning, and Madeline Davis followed with a walk. Roy then struck out three in a row to finish the shutout with 15 strikeouts. She struck out the side four times.

Halcom was 2-for-3 for the Yellow Jackets and Lauren Collie reached base three times. Davis had two hits and reached base all four at-bats for York.

Fort Mill 7, York 0

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Fort Mill softball shuts out York."