More blanks — Central shuts out District III
By Ryan Saxton
Staff Reporter

Central's Ashleigh Bousquet slides in for a run as District III's Kelsey Oliphant awaits the throw. Photo by RUSLANA LAMBERT

Both teams shared a 3-0 undefeated record going into the Day Five match-up, each achieving wins over the East, Latin America and Canada teams. Both teams had each scored a combined 24 runs against their opponents, as well, though Central had shut-out all of their competition, while Laurel let up two runs in Sunday’s win against East.

An early lead in the bottom of the first inning Thursday night gave the Indiana team some breathing room when center fielder Amanda Chamblee’s double brought in two runs. The game remained in the balance as tight defenses were led by starting pitchers Stephanie Wheatley of Laurel and Indiana’s Sam DeFord for three ensuing innings. Alexis Oliphant’s hustle at center field secured four outs for District III, including a gunned throw to the plate, ultimately leading to a run-down tag by third-baseman/relief pitcher Jenna Allen to end the fifth. Wheatley finished with two strikeouts for the hosting Delaware team.

Central furthered their lead in the top of the sixth when a triple to deep right field from Chamblee brought a runner home. Second baseman Ashlee Smith sent Chamblee home with her following double, and two more runs were able to score with short hits from catcher Angela Miller and first baseman Santana Bozman. Laurel totaled seven errors by the end of the game, leading to their first defeat of the tournament.

Little has changed through the tournament on the mound, as Deford and relief Olivia Findley have anchored the team’s defense. “This has been our pitching tandem the entire year,” Central’s manager Andy Bozman said. “They rotate every game, sometimes Olivia will start a game, and Sam will close for her.”

Facing another undefeated team in the tournament was unwavering for starting pitcher DeFord. “It’s not as much pressure,” she said. “I know I have my teammates behind me. Obviously, I don’t want them to get hits, but I know that if they do, my defense has my back.”

Bozman spoke highly of his team’s play at the mound, as well as throughout the field. “This team has been focused on defense,” he said, “and when you have two pitchers like these, who do what they do, you get great results. With this defense behind them, it gives [the pitchers] confidence to get up there and do their thing. It takes a lot of the heat off of them.”

As his team was able to bring in more runs in the sixth, Bozman admitted he started to feel a little more relieved. “In that sixth inning,” he said, “when we were able to put a few more runs on the board — that was nice. Anything can happen with two runs, but we were able to get some runners on base. We work on our small ball a lot, and the girls do a good job on it. Everybody on this team understands why we do what we do.”

Despite the loss, Laurel is very much in the tournament with one of two semi-final match-ups on Friday. They will face Southwest, the first-place team from Pool B. The winner there will face the victors of Friday’s game between Central and West, potentially heading the two up for a re-match.

“We all have a bad game,” said Laurel coach Robert Trout. “We got it out of our system — today was it. We’re in the semifinals, and we’d like to win this. We had momentum going, but we’ll bounce back. These kids are resilient. They all have great attitudes.”

Although discouraged with late play in the game, coach Rodney Hearne is still has high hopes for his District III champion team. “We didn’t come out here to lay down,” he added, “but we didn’t play how we needed to. We haven’t had that many errors since we started, and we didn’t do some of the things we do. I feel two of the best teams played tonight. We still have a chance at this. I’d like to see Central again for the championship.”

The championship game will be held on Saturday, broadcasted live on ESPN U at 2 p.m. on Ebbetts Field at Roxana’s Pyle Center.