By Thomas Grant Jr.
Winning a region title is always a proud accomplishment for a Lexington High School sports program.
The pride goes to another level when two teams win region titles on the same night at the home of the biggest archrival.
Thursday’s “Showdowns in The Swamp” was a memorable “sweep” for the visiting teams. For four hours, the Wildcat fans were treated to a combined 15 innings of intense, nail-biting competition.
BASEBALL
It started with the second meeting in three days between the Wildcats and Gators. Lexington started the week two games behind River Bluff and tied with Chapin for second place.
After a 5-0 shutout win over the Gators at home, the Wildcats were a victory away from creating a possible 3-way tie for the region title should Chapin also defeat White Knoll Thursday.
With that motivation, Lexington jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Jones Bell accounted for all four runs with a 2-run double in the first inning and 2-run homer in the third inning.
The Wildcats got another strong effort on the mound. This time, it was Reider Carlson who held River Bluff to just four hits and two runs in five innings.
After giving up an RBI fielder’s choice in the Bottom 6th, reliever Brady Azarieh threw a scoreless seventh inning for the victory.
With news of Chapin’s 8-5 win over White Knoll, this meant a co-sharing of the region title between three teams. For the post-season seeding, Lexington will place first out of the region, followed by Chapin and River Bluff.
SOFTBALL
As baseball reached the final innings, a winner-take-all battle began on the Gator softball field.
Both Lexington and River Bluff were tied at 8-1 in the region standings. The Lady Wildcats routed the Lady Gators 15-2 in the first meeting and looked to clinch their fifth region title under head coach Laurie Epps.
The rematch saw the two team combine for 33 hits in a 16-15 victory by Lexington in eight innings.
“We knew that it would be a dogfight today,” Lexington head coach Laurie Epps said. “We can score a lot of runs and we know they’re capable of that too and I knew with the region championship on the line, I knew they were going to bring their best game which a lot of teams have been doing that to us. I’m just glad we came out on top tonight and didn’t give up.”
Coming off a 11-6 loss to White Knoll that snapped a 20-game region winning streak, Lexington fell behind 4-0 in the first inning. Blythe Sanders opened up the scoring with a 2-run triple and scored off an error and A.G. Perry had an RBI double.
Lexington answered back with the first of four rallies. The 6-run rally was bookended by a solo home run by Illyana Adams and a grand slam by senior Livi Warren.
The Gators put together the second of three straight 4-run innings with an RBI single by Blair Gilcrese and a 3-run homer by Carolina Tucker.
Lexington reclaimed the lead in the Top 3rd with a 3-run rally off two sacrifice flies by Grace Fonseca and Mya Drennon and an RBI single by Payton Gonce.
A third straight 4-run inning by the Lady Gators in the third was highlighted by another 3-run homer. This time, it was Alexis Jodie who broke a 9-9 tie with the fourth home run of the game.
After a Fonseca single brought Lexington to within 12-10 in the fifth, River Bluff added three runs in the Bottom 5th to make it 15-10.
Haley Jones replaced Haley Manz and held the Lady Gators scoreless the rest of the game. This enabled Lexington to mount a 5-run rally to tie the game.
The Lady Wildcats loaded the bases with no outs and Naomi Little cleared them with a triple. She then scored off Zoe Cartledge’s single to bring Lexington to within a run.
“I’ve been in this situation before, so I just listened to my coaches to lock it down and to focus on all that I’ve been working on all throughout the season and to just come through and finish for my team.”
Jodie replaced starter Meghan Tucker and recorded two strikeouts. She then gave up an RBI single to Maya Drennon to tie the game.
Both teams failed to score in the seventh inning. Warren hit a leadoff double to open the Top 8th and moved to third base on a groundout by Gonce.
Drennon lofted a flyball to leftfield far enough for Warren to race home with the game-winning run. Jones retired the Lady Gators in order to end the game and start the outfield celebration by the Lady Wildcats.
“We didn’t give up,” said Warren, who finished 4-4 with 3 runs scored to go with the four RBI off the grand slam. “There wasn’t a single moment in that game that I thought we were going to come out losing. We stayed up, we stayed positive and that helped us in the end.”
