AKRON – Crestview did in one inning what no team had done all year when it beat Williamsburg 10-1 in the Division IV state softball tournament semifinals on Thursday.
No one had scored more than five runs in a game against the Wildcats, who arrived for their first state tournament appearance with a 28-0 record. Only two of their opponents had gotten more than two runs.
But when Crestview scored seven runs in the top of the third inning, everything changed.
The Knights (25-4) went on to add three more runs in the seventh inning and now will play Strasburg-Franklin at 10 a.m. Saturday for the state championship.
“It would have been a dream come true, and I guess it was, to put seven runs on the board because we were expecting to play a 1-0, 2-1 ball game,” Crestview coach Carl Etzler said.
Williamsburg coach Rick Healey said, “We’ve been on the end where we’ve scored the seven runs and we could kind of see the other team starting to fold a little bit. Today it twisted back on us.”
Crestview sent 11 batters to the plate in the third inning. Six of them got hits and the big hit was a three-run, bases-clearing double by Brady Guest.
When it was all over, Crestview had 14 hits against two Williamsburg pitchers — starter Kacey Smith, who brought a 16-0 record into the game, and Carly Wagers, who pitched the last 4 2/3 innings.
Crestview’s Sydney Bowen went 3 for 4, with a triple, double and single, and Kenadie Spieth also was 3 for 4. Averey McCoy went 2 for 4 and drove in two runs and Tianna Rager was 2 for 3.
Guest said Crestview was confident it could do some damage at the plate.
“We knew they had decent (pitching) speed but it wasn’t like it was overpowering. So I think we all had confidence that we would be able to catch up with the ball, and as long as we were seeing it, we would hit it,” she said.
Smith was charged with all seven runs Crestview scored in the third inning. Wagers was strong early in her time in the circle, striking out seven of eight hitters in one stretch, but Crestview caught up with her for three runs on three hits and an error in the seventh inning.
Crestview has scored 10, 10, 11 and 11 runs in its last four tournament games. And it has done it with production from the top of the lineup to the bottom.
“From Cora (leadoff hitter Cora Millay) to Codi (No. 9 hitter Codi Miller), everybody is a threat, everybody goes to the plate believing,” Etzler said. “We tell them, ‘You have to dictate the plate, you have to own the pitcher. You have to have that mentality.’ ”
Crestview had a tense bottom of the first inning when Williamsburg loaded the bases with no one out, but Jada Preston retired the next three hitters on a short fly ball, a failed squeeze bunt and a grounder back to the mound.
“It was a little nerve wracking at first,” Preston said. “But I just had to calm down and focus and had to help my team get out of it because I wanted us to be the first people to put runs on the board and not them.”
She finished the game with eight strikeouts, did not walk a batter and allowed nine hits.
Etzler said, “Jada told me earlier today, ‘If we get a couple runs, I settle down and start zoning in,’ and I think she did. She was throwing BBs today. She had good location and really was bringing it.”
Healey said both his pitchers were less than full strength. Smith was sick and Wagers was recovering from pneumonia.
“We had some illness in the troops,” he said. “But regardless of what happened to us, the team we played is solid. They’re a very, very talented team and well-coached. We hope they win so at least we can say we got beat by the state champs.”
Crestview, in the state tournament for the eleventh time, will be trying to win the third state championship in school history to go with titles in 2005 and 2012. It also was state runner-up in 2003, 2009 and 2011.
One of those state runner-up finishes came against Saturday’s opponent, Strasburg-Franklin, which won the 2011 championship game 3-1.
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