Van Wade
The Orange Leader
WEST ORANGE
Sat, May 17 2008
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History was definitely made Thursday night for the West Orange-Stark Lady Mustang softball program.
Tonight, they will try to wrap up the entire package.
The Lady Mustangs jumped on six Shepherd errors and picked up three big hits in the fifth inning as they went on to bury the Lady Pirates 5-0 in Game One of the best-of-three Class 3A Region III bidistrict playoffs.
WO-S (21-9), District 21-3A runnerups, put the ball in play throughout the game and the Lady Pirates (18-12), the third-place unit out of 22-3A had issues making throws and collecting grabs.
Meanwhile, WO-S junior ace Rebekah Ragsdale motored through the Shepherd lineup well, scattering two hits while striking out nine and had excellent defense behind her as the Lady Mustangs didn’t have a single error.
It was quite a moment for the Lady Mustangs and head coach Randy Ragsdale. This marks the third straight season the Lady Mustangs have been to the postseason and they finally claimed the much-needed victory.
“I’m so proud of this group,” said Ragsdale. “The kids really wanted this one. We had a nice home crowd that gave us a lift. We hit the ball well and put it in play enough for them (Shepherd) to make a few miscues. We ran the bases better than we have all year. I really liked our aggressiveness and our defense was excellent.”
Game Two of the series will be played at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Shepherd High School with Game Three, if necessary, to follow 30 minutes after Game Two.
“This thing is far from over,” Ragsdale said. “I’m sure Shepherd will be jacked up playing at their place. They have a young but solid little team that is going to compete.”
Shepherd ace Sarah Hood pitched well enough to win most games as she allowed just a mere two hits while striking out six and walking three. However, a couple leadoff walks and errors in the field spelled doom for her.
The Lady Mustangs scored their first two runs of the contest without getting a hit.
WO-S got the first run in the bottom of the second.
Britni Revis drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a passed ball. She then moved to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Taylor Jaynes. Ragsdale brought her home with a RBI groundout to shortstop.
Shepherd produced its only threat of the night in the top half of the second inning. Dusty Hues belted a leadoff single to right and with two outs Amy Johnston blooped a single to left. Both runners advanced to second and third on a wild Ragsdale pitch but the junior hurler got Ashley Shifleh to fly out to Jaynes at second base to end the possible rally. The Lady Pirates never reached base again over the next five frames.
“Rebekah pitched very well,” said Ragsdale. “They (Shepherd) made some pretty good contact early but Rebekah seemed to get better and better after that. I think she threw just a little more than 60 pitches so she’ll be good and ready to go tomorrow.”
The Lady Mustangs tacked on another run in the third.
With one out, Cayla Adams reached after hitting a grounder to third. The throw was mishandled at first and Adams was able to sneak all the way to second. Revis followed with a solid sac bunt to move Adams to third. Adams was able to dart in to score when Hood dropped a fly ball hit by Jaynes right past the mound.
WO-S put the finishing touches on the win in the fifth.
Lauryn Windham, who hit the ball hard all night, led off with a crushing double to deep centerfield. Kelli Bilbo brought her home with a RBI single to shallow right to make it 3-0.
With one out, Revis reached on an error as Bilbo got all the way to third. Bilbo eventually scored as a pickoff attempt at third went south for the Lady Pirates on a throwing error at the bag to up the lead to 4-0.
With two outs, Ragsdale hit a grounder to short that was mishandled just enough to allow Revis to race in to tally the final run.
The WO-S-Shepherd winner will face District 24-3A champion West Columbia Lady Roughnecks in the 3A Region III area round next week.
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