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Hurricane Sends JM To Loser’s Bracket

Photo by Joe Albright Taylor Gray (2) celebrates with Lauren Garcia, Carli Lightner and Maddy Mayle after Gray hit a home run in the first session of the West Virginia Class AAA state softball tournament.

VIENNA — John Marshall entered the West Virginia Class AAA Softball State Tournament with a team batting average north of .400. Three-time defending champion Hurricane ace Harlie Vanatter cut the Monarchs down like a bad weed.

Vannatter made a two-run, first-inning homer off the bat of Caiti Mathes stand up by striking out 12 and allowing two harmless singles as the Redskins (24-3) advanced to another championship round with a 2-0 victory late Wednesday night at Jackson Memorial Park. Hurricane awaits the survivor of John Marshall (29-2) and George Washington, who meet at 9:45 this morning for the right to try and beat Vanatter and the Redskins twice.

“It’s what I expected,” John Marshall coach Ed West said after watching his team’s 25-game winning streak end. “I’m a little disappointed in our hitting … I thought we would hit the ball better.

“It seemed like as the game went on we started to get a little more confidence and started putting the ball in play.

“We had several hard-hit shots that were right at them.”

Battling through what appeared to be either a quad or hip injury, Vanatter, a Bowling Green commit, wasted no time setting the tone. After allowing four homers and eight runs in a 10-8 victory against GW earlier in the day, she struck out the first two John Marshall batters and the Redskins were off and running.

Kiersten Landers singled through the left side of the infield leading off the bottom of the first. One out later, Mathes launched a 3-1 Lauren Garcia pitch well over the wall in left field for the only runs Vanatter needed.

As it turns out, Garcia was up to the task as well. She struck out three and allowed one more hit the rest of the way – another Landers single in the third.

“I thought Lauren pitched a great game,” West said. “They never scored after the first inning and to shut the team out for five innings is doing a helluva job.

“I’m really proud of the way she threw and the defense played great. We made the plays when we needed to make plays.”

Hurricane, which became the first in-state team to knock off JM this season, made its share of plays as well. Jayme Bailey turned in a couple of splendid efforts at third, snagging line drives off the bat of Carli Lightner in the third and Kameryn Skrzyneki in the fourth.

Then there was a running, sliding catch in center by Landers on a well-hit ball off the bat of Lydia Knutsen leading off the top of the seventh. She also ran down a long fly from Mack Hall, who had three quality at-bats, in the sixth.

“Probably not,” West responded when asked if anyone else in the state comes up with the play on Knutsen’s rocket. “It’s one of those things where the ones we did make good contact, it was right at them.

“I told them that we proved we can hit the ball. We’ve got to take care of GW first and if we can get by them and play this team again, I think we’ll have a bit more confidence getting the bat on the ball.”

Maddy Mayle broke up Vanatter’s perfect game with a sharp single back through the box with two outs in the ffth. Lightner singled in virtually the same place with one down in the seventh. Neither runner advanced any farther, however.

West said he was undecided on whether Garcia or Lightner is getting the ball in today’s opener.

John Marshall 7, Washington 5

Trailing by three entering the seventh inning and staring at an improbable loss in the opening round, John Marshall scored five times capped by a three-run homer from Carli Lightner to stun upstart Washington.

Abby Blake and Kameryn Skrzyneki started the rally with back-to-back singles and Taylor Gray walked with one out to load the bases. Anna Blake made it 5-3 with a fielder’s choice and Lydia Knutsen singled in another to cut the deficit to one. Lightner ripped a 1-0 pitch over the wall in right-center field to give the Monarchs a 7-5 lead.

Garcia, who came on in relief of Lightner in the fifth, shut the door on the Patriots in the bottom of the seventh. She induced a popout and a flyout before getting a called strike three to end the game.

“With this team I always feel we can explode for a big inning against any team,” West said. “Sometimes it happens early in the game and we kind of just get ahead and play good defense.

“This time we got behind. But I never really counted us out because I knew that we had it in us.”

Gray opened the scoring with a homer to right field on the first pitch she saw in the top of the third. She was the lone Monarch starter without a homer coming into the game but changed that quickly.

Trailing 5-1, Garcia got JM within 5-2 in the sixth with an opposite-field home run, her team-leading 12th.

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