Lady Pioneers drop Round One of A.I.I. to No. 1 Grizzlies

CRC Athletics
Erica Ewing, Sports Information Director

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The Lady Pioneers entered the day as the fourth seed in the 2018 A.I.I. Softball Conference Championships. They had to face off against the first seed in the conference, who is also the No. 1 team in the nation – Georgia Gwinnett College. Crowley’s Ridge did a good job of holding the best team in the nation to three runs through the first four innings, but ultimately gave up a big fifth inning and lost 8-0.

The Pioneer defense gave up one run in the first inning and two more in the second inning, but then held the No. 1 Grizzlies scoreless in the next two innings. Freshman pitcher Sammi Henry forced a fly out to center to start the bottom half of the third. After a CRC error allowed a runner on first base, April Kennedy tracked down a pop up in foul territory down the left field line. Then in a great heads up play, Kennedy caught the GGC runner trying to advance to second after the catch and she gunned her down as Morgen Gann laid on the tag to end the inning in a double play.

Crowley’s Ridge recorded a three up, three down inning in the bottom of the fourth. Henry struck out Georgia Gwinnett’s Tori Robinson who was hitting 0.391 on the season with only eight previous strikeouts on the year. The next batter flied out to Bre’Anna Warren in center field and then the final batter of the inning flied out to left-center.

The Georgia Gwinnett offense proved to be too much for the Pioneers in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Grizzlies connected on five hits, including two triples that pushed across five runs to end the game.

Crowley’s Ridge struggled at the plate against the impressive pitching by GGC’s Taylor Hansis who completed the no-hitter with seven strikeouts and three walks.