Roundup: Spring Hill softball uses 9-run 6th to hand Carver its first loss

LAURINBURG — The Spring Hill Spartans softball team hadn’t played a game in nearly two weeks.

So, entering Tuesday night’s middle school rivalry matchup against the undefeated Carver Eagles — dubbed the “family feud” — Coach Walter Hale had every right to feel somewhat timorous.

“I was a little concerned with how we were going to come out the gate,” Hale said.

Turns out it was all for nada.

Spring Hill used nine runs in the sixth on two hits to pad its two-run lead and hold on to win 14-3 in six innings over Carver.

“It’s a big win for my girls,” Hale said. “You can never count Carver out. Coach (Casey) Bormet and her girls, they always come out to play. Always got a good squad. It’s always a fun game, exhilarating game. Been preaching to the girls, just come out, play ball, have fun. They’ve been playing a little tight a couple games beginning of the year. They had really good energy out here tonight. I guess it was playing out here at Scotland, at the high school. Different feel, and just the energy, I think having more people in the stands kept them all into it, actually paying attention to the game.”

While a win is a win, it didn’t come against a fully healthy Eagles squad. Star player Nora Teasley, who started the first two innings in the circle, left after suffering a health issue and did not return. Kaleigh Leviner, the starting catcher, replaced Teasley for the final four frames, ultimately taking the loss.

“You hate that because it’s a totally different ball game with Nora,” Hale said. “And then, for them to have to bring Kaleigh in after catching two innings in this heat, it affects the girls.”

Following Teasley’s exit, Spring Hill (3-2) broke open the scoring with Nevaeh Lewis’ unearned score — one of 10 by both teams.

After Myer Johnson’s RBI hit that brought home Katie Sampson in the fourth for the Spartans, Carver (4-1) tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning with unearned runs by Abby Phillips and Brylee Powell.

But in the fifth, Spring Hill’s Zakiyah Hailey hit a two-RBI double to score Bella Hale and Haydynn Lowery before her unearned run from third made it 5-2; Carver’s Raevien Hewett tacked on a run in the same frame on an error.

“That’s all you can hope to do with Carver … is try to go blow for blow with them,” Walter Hale said. “They score one, we score one, you hold them to zero and that’s all you can really do. And then, hope for a breakout inning that we had.”

The monster sixth from Spring Hill started with back-to-back scores by Johnson and Lewis, both on errors. Lowery’s RBI double brought in Bella Hale to put the advantage at 8-3 before Lowery stole third and home one pitch into the next at-bat. Hailey subsequently scored from first, Neffateria McCutchen tagged home on a passed ball, Mariya Campbell’s RBI two-base knock helped Sampson run home, Johnson ran home on an error and Lewis scored again on a passed ball.

“Everybody just started hitting the ball, and then we just started chanting and got in their heads,” Lowery said.

”I’ve been preaching to the girls, just put the ball in play,” Walter Hale said. “That’s all you can do. One swing at a time when it’s a close game. You’ve got to chip away, pass the bat. Been trying to tell the girls that and get them to understand what that means. As a team, we passed the bat. You’re going to do a whole lot more damage than one big bomb.”

Carver had a runner on first in the bottom of the sixth to try and spark a rally, but consecutive strikeouts ended the game.

”I think that we did good as a team because we came out here early, and we decided to warm up early and we went as a team,” Lowery said.

Lowery finished with two of Spring Hill’s seven hits and one of its six RBIs; Lowery was also the team’s lone pitcher for the evening, finishing with 16 strikeouts and three walks to just two hits allowed.

Jennaleigh Jernigan and Leviner had an RBI each for Carver; Abbi Locklear and Teasley had a hit apiece.

Up next, Spring Hill hosts West Hoke on Wednesday and Carver heads to Hamlet on Monday.

“We’ve got to pretty much win a majority of our games left to stand a chance to make it into the playoffs,” Walter Hale said. “So it was a big win tonight.”

Spring Hill girls, Carver boys win on soccer pitch

The Spring Hill girls soccer team outlasted the Carver Eagles 2-1 in sudden death overtime Tuesday night at Scotland High in Laurinburg.

After two rounds of penalty kicks, in which both teams went 1-for-5, Spring Hill’s Analeesa Bowman booted the ball in the net in the sudden-death period before goalkeeper Amelia Ricks blocked Carver’s ensuing attempt, finalizing the match.

Carver’s Sophia Garcia scored the first goal by either team moments into the second half; Spring Hill’s Aubrey Shaw tied it with 1:40 left in regulation to send it to overtime.

Spring Hill advanced to 2-4 with the victory; Carver dropped to 2-2.

In the boys’ soccer match that followed, Carver defeated Spring Hill 4-1; stats were unavailable from the match.

Carver’s boys moved to 1-3; Spring Hill remained winless at 0-6.

Carver’s boys’ and girls’ soccer teams visit Ellerbe on Wednesday; Spring Hill’s squads are at East Hoke on Thursday.