‘Team effort’ win over AJ puts Legion softball one win closer to 2A state championship
She’s thrown every single pitch in every single game of the Legion Collegiate softball team’s first full season — and she proved clutch once more on Tuesday night.
Junior Taylor Watson threw five strikeouts en route to a 6-3 win over Andrew Jackson in Game 1 of the best-of-three 2A state championships series in Kershaw. The Lancer appeared to be at her best when the pressure was on — stranding at least one AJ runner on base in five of the game’s seven innings.
“Let me tell you, she’s a player,” Legion head coach Mark Cooke told The Herald postgame, adding, “I think it was just a good team effort. Everybody was doing what we were asking them to do today.”
He then smiled: “It’s a lot more fun when you do that.”
The Rock Hill public charter school took ahold of the game early and didn’t look back: A three-run first inning — powered by two fielder’s choices turned runs batted in and a Gabi Wilson single — stunned a near-sold-out Lancaster County crowd into silence. Another two runs in the third (via a Wilson double and then a senior Reagan Smith single) appeared to put the game away.
But Andrew Jackson fought back: AJ’s Kaegan King laced a single up the middle, which drove in two runs. 5-2, Legion still up. And then in the top of the fifth, the Volunteers scored once more by virtue of a Bree Colbert RBI single. 6-3.
But the score didn’t budge after that. In the top of the sixth, Legion pitcher Watson accounted for all three outs — fielding two groundouts and tossing a strikeout — and then in the bottom of the seventh, it was four-up, three-down.
Game 1: Legion.
Game 2, which could decide the 2A state championship with a Legion win, will be played on Thursday at Cherry Park on Field 1.
“Man, it’s nice to win one, especially the first one,” Cooke said. “I’m tired of having to go far away to win a tiebreaker to advance, so being (in this position) makes it easier for us.”
The Lancers and Volunteers are Region 4-2A foes. Legion defeated Andrew Jackson in both head-to-head regular-season contests.
Andrew Jackson head coach Wesley Kidd addressed that fact to his team before the beginning of the series, he told The Herald postgame.
His main message? It’s a new season.
“When we started the series, I said, ‘The region is done. Everyone is 0-0 now, you know?’” he said. “Yeah we played them, so we know them, and they know us. But really, as far as what happened in those games, we gotta work and we gotta battle. And I think they did that.”
He added: “I think we showed that we definitely can play with them. Just a few hits in a few key situations — timely hitting is what this game is all about when you’re playing a good team. …
“They’re going to score runs. We just gotta score with them.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 10:37 PM.
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