The Lake View Lady Wild Gators defeated the Bamberg-Erhardt Lady Warriors 7-3 for the Class A Lower State Championship in the third game of the series played at Manning High School, Manning, S.C., on Saturday, May 29.
The Lake View Lady Wild Gators held the Lady Warriors scoreless in the top of the first inning and placed 3 runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning. Lake View’s Baxleigh Arnette led off with a hot grounder to the pitcher to set the stage for the bottom half of the first inning. Spivey Evans garnered a walk to place runners on first and second. Emma King also got a walk to load the bases. Raven Locklear lined one to second for a double and 2 rbi. Hollie Scott had a sac grounder to short and picked up a rbi to give Lake View a 3-0 lead. The Lady Warriors replaced the pitcher with Maria Moody who managed to get out of a jam with no more scoring to close out the inning trailing 3-0.
The Lady Warriors were retired 3 up and 3 down in the top of the second inning.
Lake View’s Baxleigh Arnette appeared to be having a great afternoon. She led off the bottom of the second inning by hitting one that hit near the top of the fence in center for a stand-up double. Emma King garnered a walk as did Raven Locklear to load the bases. Hollie Scott hit a sac fly to fly to give Lake View a 4-0 lead. Becca Cox lined one to left to pick up a rbi. The Lake View Lady Wild Gators had a 5-0 lead after 2 inning of play. Once again in the top of the third inning, Bamberg-Erhardt was once again retired with 3 up and 3 down.
After 2 batters were retired in the bottom of the third inning, Baxleigh Arnette once again hit one, but this time it went t left and bounced once and hit the fence. She picked up a double on that hit, also. Lake View’s next batter was sat down with a strike out while watching to close out the inning.
In the top of the fourth inning, Amanda Ahlin led off with a walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. Mikayla Hallman hit a fly to center for out 1 followed by Jakiah Wilson who struck out swinging. With 2 outs, Wallis Rutland hit one to short that took a bad hop and the Lady Warriors found themselves with their first run of the game to cut Lake View’s lead to 4 runs, 5-1. The inning would end this way.
Emma King hit one to right that should have been caught. However, she ended up on third base. Raven Locklear hit a hot one by third for a single and a rbi to give Lake View a 6-1 lead. Hollie Scott hit a dribbler to first and was safe. This would be all of the offense for Lake View in this inning as the next 3 batters were retired.
Bamberg-Erhardt was retired in 1-2-3 fashion in the top of the fifth inning. Lake View picked up a run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Baxleigh Arnette hit a home run to give Lake View a 7-1 lead.
After a strike out by Elaney Sanders who led off the top of the sixth inning, Amanda Ahlin garnered a walk followed by Mikahyla Hallman who also walked to give the Lady Warriors runners on first and second. Jakiah Wilson arrived safely on a grounder to load the bases. Wallis Rutland arrived safely at first on a fielder’s choice and a run scored and left runners on the corners. On a high pitch, the runner at first advanced to second. Maria Moody hit one over second for a single and a rbi to cut Lake View’s lead to 4 runs, 7-3. The runner advanced to second from first. Tamiya Toomer hit a slow one to first and arrived safely and picked up a rbi to cut Lake View’s lead to 3, 7-4, Reagan Johnson lead a grounder to third for out 3.
The Lady Wild Gators did not get a run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, Riley Johnson went down swinging for the first out. Elaney Sanders garnered a walk. Amanda Ahlin lined to center for out 2, and the runner on first was thrown out before she could return to compete the double play to end the game with Lake View on top 7-4.
Raven Locklear picked up the win. She pitched 7 innings and struck out 8, walked 4, allowed 4 hits, and allowed 4 runs. Riley Johnson was tagged with the loss. She pitched 1 and 2/3 innings. She struck out no one, walked 6, allowed 3 hits, and allowed 5 runs.
Baxleigh Arnette was perfect at the plate.
She had a home run, 2 doubles, a single, and a rbi in her 4 at-bats. Emma King a hit in her 1 at-bat. Raven Locklear had a double, a single, and 3 rbi in her 3 at-bats. Hollie Scott had a hit and 2 rbi in her 3 at-bats. Becca Cox had a hit and a rbi in her 3 at-bats.
In a previous game, the Lake View Lady Wild Gators defeated the Bamberg-Ehrhardt Lady Warriors 11-0 in the Class A Lower State varsity softball playoffs in Bamberg on Wednesday, May 26, to force game 3 of the series.
The Lady Wild Gators wasted little time in placing runs on the scoreboard. In the top of the first inning, Lake View scored 2 runs that would prove to be the only score needed in the win in this game. However, the team added more runs.
After no runs were scored by either team in the second, third, and fourth innings, Lake View scored a run in the top of the fifth inning, added 2 runs in the top of the sixth inning, and 6 runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Raven Locklear picked up the win for the Lady Wild Gators. She pitched 7 innings and struck out 4, walked 2, allowed 2 hits, and did not allow a run in the game.
Riley Johnson was tagged with the loss. She pitched 6 and 2/3 innings and struck out 5, walked 6, allowed 9 hits, and allowed 11 runs of which 10 were earned.
Lake View’s Zandasia McNeil had a home run, a triple, a single, and 5 rbi in her 4 at-bats. Raven Locklear had a hit and 4 rbi in her 4 at-bats. Emma King had a triple and a rbi in her 2 at-bats. Baylee Miller had 2 hits in her 3 at-bats. Hollie Scott and Becca Cox each had a hit in 3 at-bats.
Lake View will travel to Dixie today (Tuesday, June 1) for a 6:00 p.m. and will be home on Thursday against Dixie for a 6:00 p.m. game.
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