Clover softball takes ‘big’ win over Fort Mill, plus all Rock Hill-area scores
One last time, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Amelia Mason lunged forward and let go of an off-speed pitch that had the potential to punctuate one of the best wins of the Clover softball season to date.
And the pitch did just that.
Mason struck out the last batter swinging, and a celebration ensued: Clover defeated region rival and 5A power Fort Mill, 4-1, on the road on Friday night. The win has put the Blue Eagles back in the Region 3-5A title chase after they lost to Fort Mill last week at home — and it has appeared to give the Blue Eagles a new confidence as the regular season hits its final stretch.
“This is big,” Clover head coach Shea Hall told The Herald postgame. She was wearing a hat, ear-warmers, a heavy jacket, gloves and a big smile on the chilly Friday evening. “Fort Mill has been at the top of our region the last several years. Last week, they 10-runned us (13-3) at our place. And you know, we had to do a little gut-check.
“We knew we were better than that. But we had to prove it. I thought the girls had a good mindset, worked hard all week, and I felt like we were ready.”
Clover (11-3, 4-1) is now tied in the region standings with Fort Mill (7-5, 3-1). If the season ended Friday, Fort Mill would take the region title and a No. 1 seed in the 5A playoffs. (The first region tiebreaker is cumulative runs allowed in head-to-head contests, and Fort Mill’s 13-run performance last week gives it the edge there.)
But the Blue Eagles weren’t interested in those details Friday. They’re taking their season one game at a time, Hall said.
“Whether it was good, bad, pretty — we were going to try and find a way to beat Fort Mill,” Hall said.
Friday’s game started fast: In the top of the first inning, Clover scored three runs and never looked back.
With no outs and two runners on, Emily Wodecki slapped a single which sent Maddie Bruining home for an early 1-0 lead. The next batter, Adah Bruining laced a line drive to right field, which drove in Wodecki and Logan MacNeil. 3-0.
The game would settle after that raucous first inning. There wouldn’t be another score until the top of the fifth, when a Clover Wodecki single drove in Emilee Lessmeister to make the score 4-0.
Fort Mill had a few opportunities to bring the game’s margin closer. The most promising one came in the bottom of the fifth. With two runners in scoring position with two outs, Olivia Poteat drove a single to center field. But some great fielding from Clover outfielder MacNeil only allowed one Fort Mill run — and Mason then worked out of the stretch and forced a groundout to keep the game’s score at 4-1.
And no one would score the rest of the way.
Mason, a freshman, finished with a fantastic stat-line on Friday: She struck out three and allowed only four hits and one walk in seven innings pitched.
“We’ve talked to Amelia: She’s on that fast track,” said Hall, who is in her 21st season as head coach of the Blue Eagles. “She’s having to grow up faster, maybe, than some. But she’s ready for that challenge. And that’s what we told her right here. That’s why we work her so hard, why we challenge her so hard. And she always meets that challenge.”
It was an eventful Friday night. Here’s what else you need to know from the baseball and softball action across York, Chester and Lancaster counties this week.
Other Rock Hill-area softball scores
Monday
Blythewood 5, Northwestern 0
Blythewood 11, Northwestern 0
Catawba Ridge 14, Rock Hill 1
Chester 15, Lower Richland 0
Andrew Jackson 15, North Central 3
Wednesday
Clover 12, Indian Land 2
Nation Ford 5, Lewisville 3
Catawba Ridge 7, Lancaster 4
Thursday
Ridge View 22, South Pointe 7
Friday
Clover 4, Fort Mill 1
Indian Land 6, Catawba Ridge 5
Lancaster 4, York 1
Lewisville 17, McBee 1
Softball region standings
Region 3-5A: 1. Clover 4-1/9-2; 2. Fort Mill 3-1/7-4; 3. Nation Ford 2-3/8-8; 4. Gaffney 1-3/2-6; 5. Boiling Springs 1-3/10-6.
Region 4-5A: 1. Blythewood 5-0/11-4; 2. Ridge View 2-1/9-1; 3. Spring Valley 2-1/8-8; 4. Rock Hill 1-3/4-13; 5. Northwestern 0-5/0-6.
Region 3-4A: 1. Catawba Ridge 5-1/16-2; 2. Lancaster 5-1/13-4; 3. Indian Land 1-3/5-9; 4. York 1-4/5-4; 5. South Pointe 0-3/0-6.
Region 3-4A: 1. Chester 3-1/4-4; 2. Mid-Carolina 1-1/3-5; 3. Lower Richland 1-2/1-7; 4. Fairfield Central 1-2/3-2.
Region 4-2A: 1. Buford 7-0/10-4; 2. Andrew Jackson 3-2/9-5; 3. Cheraw 2-3/3-5; 4. Chesterfield 1-2/1-3; 5. Pageland Central 0-3/0-8; 6. North Central 0-3/1-8.
Region 2-1A: 1. Lewisville 8-0/15-4; 2. Great Falls 4-4/4-5; 3. McBee 2-2/2-4; 4. CA Johnson 1-4/1-4; 5. Midlands Stem 0-5/0-5.
Baseball: Lewisville wraps up region title
The Lewisville Lions claimed the Region 2-1A regular season title with a 7-1 victory over the McBee Panthers Friday night in Richburg.
After two scoreless innings, Lewisville took a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the third. They broke the contest open with four more in the fourth frame.
KJ Hemphill’s two-run triple was the big hit in the outburst. Luis Rosa-Rosa added a run-scoring triple to the rally. Seth Morrow, who was the winning pitcher, contributed an RBI single.
The Lions outscored McBee 2-1 in the rest of the way to earn the region crown.
The victory was the second in two days for the Lions over the Panthers. They routed McBee on the road on Thursday night.
Lewisville completed its region season with a 6-0 mark. They are 7-7 overall on the year.
Other Rock Hill-area baseball scores
Monday
Clover 8, Nation Ford 3
Rock Hill 15, Ridge View 6
Fort Mill 5, Lewisville 4 (8)
Catawba Ridge 7, Indian Land 0
York 4, Lancaster 1
Andrew Jackson 6, Cheraw 0
Legion Collegiate 5, Carmel Christian 2
Wednesday
Clover 9, Nation Ford 2
Rock Hill 5, Ridge View 0
Fort Mill 8, Northwestern 3
Catawba Ridge 14, Indian Land 5
York 9, Lancaster 2
Legion Collegiate 4, Asheville Christian 3
Thursday
Lewisville 14, McBee 0
Friday
Clover 10, Nation Ford 8
Catawba Ridge 8, Indian Land 6
Andrew Jackson 6, Cheraw 0
Chesterfield 10, York Prep 0
Lewisville 7, McBee 1
Great Falls 4, CA Johnson 3
Baseball region standings
Region 3-5A: 1. Clover 8-1/15-2; 2. Nation Ford 4-5/4-11; 3. Boiling Spring 2-2/10-5; 4. Gaffney 1-2/3-11; 5. Fort Mill 1-6/9-5.
Region 4-5A: 1. Blythewood 8-0/15-1; 2. Spring Valley 7-4/9-7; 3. Northwestern 3-5/6-7; 4. Rock Hill 3-5/5-6; 5. Ridge View 0-7/0-9.
Region 3-4A: 1. Catawba Ridge 10-2/14-4; 2. York 5-3/7-8; 3. Indian Land 4-5/8-8; 4. Lancaster 2-6/5-10; 5. South Pointe 2-7/4-9.
Region 3-4A: Mid-Carolina 4-0/7-3; 2. Chester 3-1/5-5; 3. Fairfield Central 2-3/5-5; 4. Lower Richland 2-3/4-6; 5. Keenan 0-4/0-6.
Region 4-2A: 1. Andrew Jackson 6-0/16-1; 2. Chesterfield 8-2/11-4; 3. Buford 5-2/10-5; 4. North Central 2-4/4-6; 5. Cheraw 0-3/2-6; 6. York Prep 0-5/2-6; 7. Pageland Central 0-5/0-7.
Region 2-1A: 1. Lewisville 6-0/7-7; 2. McBee 3-2/4-9; 3. Great Falls 1-4/2-9; 4. CA Johnson 0-4/0-6.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 11:35 PM.
.jpeg)