By Lonnie Turner
Tiffany Dwyer was only a pitch away from hurling a perfect game against the Cheraw Junior Varsity Lady Braves on Wednesday, March 13. She walked the opposing pitcher, Madison Jacobs, with two out in the first inning and retired the final ten batters she faced to notch a 15-0 victory through three and one half innings. Johnna Rogers nearly duplicated the feat, throwing a one-hitter in the second game of the twin bill, to give the Dillon High School J.V. Lady Cats a 20-0 victory and a clean sweep for the evening. She whiffed six of the 10 batters faced and didn’t walk a batter through three innings.
The Lady Cats had their bats blazing in the two games with a combined total of 20 hits, ten in each game, including five hits each for Rogers and Taylor Blackmon. In the first game, Cheraw’s Jacobs had trouble hitting the strike zone walking seven of the thirteen batters she faced in the first inning, two with the bases loaded. Auh’Keria “Lefty” Smiling and Rogers had two-run singles in the inning to give the Cats a 9-0 lead.
After Dwyer sat the side down in order in the second inning, Sha’Miya McLellan greeted Jacobs with a single to start the bottom of the inning and later scored on a passed ball. Macy Johnson doubled with two out but was thrown out at the plate to retire the side with Dillon holding a 10-0 lead.
Rogers and McLellan singled in the third and Brittney Miller worked Jacobs for her second walk of the game to load the bases and Brianna Froneburger grounded out to score Rogers. Sierra Dixon blasted a double in the gap in left field to send Miller and McLellan scampering across the plate and Johnson’s second hit of the game scored Dixon to give the Cats a 14-0 bulge.
Blackmon beat out an infield hit with one out in the bottom of the fourth, stole second and later scored the winning run as the game ended by the 15-run mercy rule.
Every Lady Wildcat in the lineup scored at least one run in the second game to support Rogers on the mound as the Lady Cats romped to a 20-0 win. Rogers had two hits in the opening frame, including a two-run double and an RBI single. Taylor Blackmon also hit safely in her first two at-bats driving in a pair of runs in the 9-run first inning. In her next two times at the plate, Blackmon singled twice to drive another run home.
Dillon sent 14 batters to the plate in the second inning and scored nine more runs to take an 18-0 lead into the third inning. Macy Johnson batted in a pair of the runs with a solid single to right in the inning and completed the game with 2 hits in two official trips to the plate. She walked in her third time at bat. Blackmon and drove in three runs with back to back one-out singles in the big third.
Cheraw shortstop and clean-up hitter, Amberly Williams, swung late and singled to the opposite field to become only the second Cheraw base runner in the two games, but she was quickly thrown out by Rogers when Ashley Leviner bounced back to the mound for a fielder’s choice.
In the Dillon third inning, Smiling and Blackmon led off with base hits and scored the final two runs of the game. Smiling scored on a wild pitch and Blackmon scored on Brittney Miller’s RBI grounder to short.
Rogers struck out the side in Cheraw’s final at-bat to seal the victory.
