Cougars’ rally stops Waynesboro

By Robert Sisk

Published: May 16, 2008

STUARTS DRAFT — Stuarts Draft will get to play at least one more game at home.
With the Southern Valley District’s No. 2 Region III seed on the line the Cougars needed a late rally against Waynesboro to lock up a first-round region home game. Two Cougar runs in the sixth gave Draft a 7-6 win over the Little Giants.
Now the Cougars will have to turn their attention to No. 1 Fort Defiance and the Southern Valley District tournament championship. The Indians wrapped up their Region III berth during the regular season, sweeping the district and will have a first-round bye in the region tournament.
“We played [Fort] really well last time and I’m looking forward to taking the district tournament from them,” said Stuarts Draft coach Michelle Campbell.
Waynesboro still has a shot at Region III play, but will have to do so through the Southern Valley consolation game against Robert E. Lee. The winner of the third-place game will earn the final berth and will travel in the first round.
The Little Giants had the Cougars on the ropes Friday afternoon, with senior pitcher Brittnie Siron not allowing a hit through three innings and the Little Giants offense earning a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.
“Brittany was on tonight,” said Waynesboro coach Jason Aleshire. “She had her game on. She probably had one of the best games of the year.”
Siron had struck out four in the first three innings, and the Cougars lone run was unearned. Amber Christy scored on a Little Giants error.
With their bats swinging cold, the Cougars finally got their offense moving in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out Cadie Loan got the Cougars first hit and moved to second on a Sabrina Desper infield single to start Draft’s first rally. Loan stole second to put runners on the corners and Brittany Wright hit a base clearing double to pull the Cougars within one run.
“Our hitting wasn’t there in the beginning,” Campbell said. “They had me worried. Waynesboro played pretty tough and gave us a good ballgame.”
Wright later scored on an Erin Brown single to tie the game and give Draft some life.
The Little Giants didn’t allow Draft to keep the lead for long and pulled back in front in the top of the fifth. With two outs Heather Sutton reached first on an error in center field and was given Ashley Adkins as a courtesy runner. Adkins stole second and later scored on a Siron single.
Siron moved to third on another Cougars’ error in outfield, this time to the benefit of the Little Giants’ Brenda Price, and scored on a LaToya Diggs single to give Waynesboro a 6-4 lead.
The Cougars suffered from errors all game, giving up six and making their pitcher Brown work even harder in the final two innings to keep them in the game.
Draft pulled back within one in the next frame with Christy scoring again, this time on a Desper sacrifice fly and the Cougar defense shut down Waynesboro in the sixth.
“I don’t know if we fell apart,” Aleshire said. “Draft turned the game up. We capitalized in every inning we could accept the last.”
In the bottom of the inning, Draft continued to claw back into the game. Jessica Whitesell hit a single and moved to second on a wild pitch.
With the tying runner in scoring position Ariel Christy took to the batters box. She had gone 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a fly out in her first two appearances, but made up for it hitting a RBI single to knot the game.
“I had shivers the whole time and it felt good to get it when we needed it,” she said. “It was a weird game.”
Ariel Christy later scored the eventual game-winning run after she advanced to second and third on wild pitches and scored on a Waynesboro infield error.
After the game she was still grasping what the win meant.
Stuarts Draft will play the Seminole’s No. 3 team in the first round of the Region III tournament.