York Cougars stay perfect after big win over Northwestern Trojans

Taylor Wilkerson pitched a complete game and the defense got some big outs at home plate to help the York Cougars to a 9-1 victory Friday night over the Northwestern Trojans at York High School.

The win keeps the Cougars (4-0) undefeated overall and, more importantly, moves them to 2-0 in Region 3-4A. Wilkerson only allowed one run on six hits to get the win. In both the first and fourth innings, the York defense nabbed Trojan baserunners at home to avoid serious damage. Madeline Davis was 2-for-3 with two doubles and three runs scored for the Cougars, and Destini Love was 3-for-4 with four RBI. Sam Van Camp was 3-for-3 and reached base four times.

Rachel Marion tripled in the first for the Trojans, but Cayla Campbell fielded Annie Green’s one-out grounder to short and threw home to Madeline Davis to nail Marion.

Northwestern started the scoring in the fourth when Mallory Clamp walked with the bases loaded to score Marion, who had doubled. But the Trojans left the bases loaded when Destini Love fielded a two-out squibber down the third base line and threw home to end the inning with only one run coming across.

The Cougars answered in the home half of the inning. Davis led off with a double to left-center and Destini Love reached on an infield hit that moved Davis to third. When Love broke to steal second, the catcher’s throw sailed into center to score Davis. Dequezha Love followed with a double to left to bring in Destini Love and put York up 2-1.

The Cougars broke it open in the fifth with four more. Davis doubled to drive in Carlee Shannon to make it 3-1. But the big hit was Destini Love’s three-run inside-the-park homer into the right field corner that made it 6-1. Shannon tripled in the sixth and Sam Van Camp singled her home.

Destini Love’s base hit to left plated Van Camp and the ball rolled through the left-fielder’s legs to allow Davis, who had walked, to score for the final 9-1 margin.

TURNING POINT

The fourth inning was pivotal as the Trojans loaded the bases but only managed to push one run across. York took the lead for good in the bottom half and Dequezha Love had the big hit in the inning. The Cougars then put it out of reach in the fifth.

CRITICAL

Northwestern could not capitalize on scoring chances and got thrown out at home in two separate innings while their own defense let them down with a couple errrors in the game.

STAR CONTRIBUTORS

Dequezha Love was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and Carlee Shannon was 2-for-3 with a triple and two runs scored. Brezhay Chambers struck out six for the Trojans and Rachel Marion was 2-for-3 with two extra-base hits. Isabel Shellnut was 2-for-3 also.

OVERHEARD

“She’s not over-powering, but she hits her spots and trusts her defense,” York coach Will Jameson said of Cougar pitcher Taylor Wilkerson. “And she gets strikeouts late in games just by hitting her spots. And she knows she’s got great defense behind her.”

“Cayla came up firing and Madeline’s a wall back there,” Jameson said of the key putout at home in the first inning. “I think that set the tone right there that this is a different York team from the past.”

“Preseason we did a lot of good things,” Jameson said. “The Rock Hill game was very close which sort of developed some character for us. We keep getting better and better. They’re very coachable and that’s what it’s all about.”

ON DECK

York goes to Gaffney Tuesday while the Trojans head to Clover Wednesday.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 9:39 PM with the headline "York Cougars stay perfect after big win over Northwestern Trojans."