|
Eastern Guilford makes early exit
GIBSONVILLE - Farmville Central pitcher Stephanie Moore posed a riddle to the Eastern Guilford softball team Tuesday night.
The question was her change up, but the Wildcats couldn't find the solution in the first round of the Class 2-A state playoffs, falling 6-1 to the visiting Jaguars.
"She's got a pretty good change," Eastern Guilford coach Randall Clapp said. "We haven't faced a whole lot of that this year."
Moore never allowed more than two base runners at a time and only once allowed more than one hit in an inning, but when she did get in trouble that changeup was there.
"She did a good job of mixing her pitches up," Farmville Central coach Shawn Talbott said. "Curveball, change up, just keeping them off balance"
In the fifth inning, Moore allowed the first batter to reach base. But using her off-speed pitch, Moore escaped the inning with only one run allowed.
"If you can't throw it by them, then what we have to do is keep teams off balance," Talbott said.
While Eastern Guilford (7-18) was held in check, Farmville Central (13-9) was shaking off 10 days of rust. The break might have stalled the offense until the second time through the lineup.
Eastern Guilford pitcher Nicole Stephens allowed one run during the first three innings, but the middle of the Jaguars' order caught fire after timing Stephens' fastball.
"Once we got that second time, third time through the order some of our better hitters were able to capitalize and did a good job of driving the ball in the gap," Talbott said.
Through the next four innings the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 batters went 6-for-8 with two doubles, two triples and four RBI.
"(Stephens) is more of a power pitcher, not a finesse pitcher," Clapp said. "When you see a pitcher for the second time around, they were keying in on that. You are able to hit the ball better the second time, seeing that same pitcher, the same ball, the same area of the plate."
After five innings, Eastern Guilford was down 4-1 and Moore's changeup had all but stumped the Wildcats.
"When (Farmville Central) got up so much it kind of made us seem like we couldn't come back," Eastern Guilford third baseman Taylor Michael said.
Michael was the only member of the Wildcats to have more than one hit - two singles.
"It kind of puts your team down and when you make errors it's hard to say, ‘Let's get it together' and it's hard to come back as a team and get focused again," Michael said.
