Box Score
Box score
HARROGATE, Tenn. - Abby Child continued her offensive assault
and Katelynn Howser dazzled in six innings on the mound as the
second-seeded Anderson Trojans capped their unblemished tournament
run by capturing a 5-0 win over the third-seeded Wingate Bulldogs
in the title game of the 2014 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference
Softball Championship on Sunday at Dorothy Neely Field.
By virtue of claiming the SAC Championship, Anderson (42-10)
earns the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II
Southeast Regional, while Wingate (36-18) will seek an at-large
selection.
Both the Trojans and Bulldogs used victories over the Catawba
Indians on Saturday to set up Sunday's championship clash, as
Anderson's Abby Child belted a two-run, walk-off home run in the
bottom of the seventh against the Indians, while the Bulldogs
nabbed an 8-0 win over the shell-shocked Indians just over an hour
later. Wingate played its way out of the loser's bracket after
dropping a 6-3 decision to these very same Trojans on Friday
afternoon.
While Wingate entered Sunday's affair leading the SAC tournament
field in ERA with a 1.53 mark in 32 innings pitched, the Trojans
boasted six of the eight runs charged against the Bulldog staff in
tournament play. Anderson nearly repeated that effort on Sunday,
collecting five runs with at least one score in the second, third
and fourth frames.
Anderson senior Abby Child went 2-for-3 with three RBI and a
walk, finishing off a sensational all-around performance for the
shortstop. Child posted a gaudy .583 average with seven hits, eight
RBI and three homers in 12 official at-bats. Jessica Neidigh added
a pair of hits with two runs in Sunday's title bout.
Courtney Czentnar slashed a leadoff double down the left-field
line and Rebecca Martin was hit on the ankle by a 1-2 pitch to put
the Trojans in business in the bottom of the second. Catcher Laura
Jansky bunted the runners into scoring position for Bri Cason.
Cason ripped a liner directly at Wingate shortstop Alexis Burrell,
who snagged it for the second out of the inning. On the catch,
Martin was left hanging off of second base, but Burrell's throw
sailed into right field to score Czentnar from third.
Anderson went right back to work in the bottom of the third as
Neidigh singled and Molly Child doubled to put a pair of runners on
with no outs. A gutsy, 11-pitch at-bat for Abby Child resulted in a
scorched two-run, two-bagger off of the bottom of the wall in
left-center. Child fouled off five of the last six pitches she saw
from All-SAC First Team selection Stacey Houser before narrowly
missing her fourth home run of the tournament, which would have
broken the SAC career record for bombs.
The Trojans added a crooked number to the scoreboard again in
the bottom of the fourth as Charlotte Sieber was plunked by a pitch
and Neidigh snuck a double into the gap in left-center. Molly Child
bounced a grounder to second baseman Mellena Helms in the next
at-bat, and Helms fielded it cleanly, but Sieber avoided the tag at
home with a heads up slide. Abby Child crested the lead to 5-0 with
an RBI single just past the outstretched hand of Helms.
While all that was happening for the Trojans at the plate,
Anderson starter Katelyn Howser threw up six-straight zeroes on the
scoreboard, finishing her stellar outing without allowing a hit to
the final 17 batters she faced. Howser picked up her third win of
the SAC Championship, surrendering only two hits with two
strikeouts and two walks in six innings before giving way to Lauren
Rudesheim in the final frame. Rudesheim worked around a leadoff
single to put Wingate away without a run.
Kayla Saliga went 2-for-2 for the Bulldogs, while Mellena Helms
was 1-for-3, accounted for the only three hits charged against
either Howser or Rudesheim. Wingate starter Stacey Houser was
handed the loss after allowing six hits and five runs (four earned)
with five strikeouts in four innings pitched. Taylor Bates stepped
in for two innings of relief, and she did not allow a hit with two
strikeouts during that stretch.