Gators bounce back, play on in Class A softball finals

LAKE VIEW — As Leigh Ann Shelley reached back to touch the plate, Lake View softball coach Chad Huggins said he could barely believe what he had just seen.
Huggins probably wasn’t the only one, either.
Capped by Avonlea Cooke’s two-run double, the Wild Gators managed three straight two-out hits in the bottom of seventh inning for a come-from-behind 5-4 win Wednesday against Chesterfield to knot the Class A state championship series at 1-1.
Game 3 will be at 6 p.m. Friday at South Florence High School.
“I don’t know if I can take another one of these games,” Huggins said laughing. “Sometimes kids do things that amaze adults, and this was one of those nights. I’ve never seen a team, down to its last out and with all that pressure on them, come through like the girls did tonight.
“Games like this are why you get into coaching.”
Leading 4-3 in the seventh, Chesterfield starter Kerri Jackson retired the first two batters on six pitches. With the season on the line, Lake View catcher Kasey Nobles stepped to the plate.
Nobles, 0-for-6 against Jackson at the time, singled to right field to keep the Wild Gators alive. Shelley followed with a bloop single of her own, bringing Cooke to the plate.
With an 0-1 count, Cooke lined the ball between third base and short. Rams left fielder Lauren Davis could not come up with ball, however, and it rolled toward the fence.
Nobles scored easily, and Huggins then waved Shelley around third. The relay throw home was high, and a sliding Shelley came back to tag home plate, sending the Lake View bench and stands into euphoria.
“(Jackson) had been throwing me first-pitch strikes every at bat until then, so I went up there looking to swing,” said Cooke, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBI. “I battled off the first pitch, and got the next one right where I wanted it.
“It’s been a crazy couple of games. We worked really hard on our hitting in practice and I think that paid off tonight.”
Lake View fell behind 3-0 after a disastrous third inning. Wild Gators starter Shelley gave up four straight hits, including an RBI triple to game 1 hero Christian Stokes, followed by a two-run homer to Kelley King. King finished 3-for-4 with a homer, two triples and two RBI to lead the Rams.
Huggins removed Shelley from the mound, but kept her in the game at third base despite not having a single inning there all season.
Amber Suggs, who had logged more than her share of innings during the regular season, replaced Shelley and allowed just one run the final 4 2/3 innings, striking out eight along the way.
“Thank goodness we’ve been doing that all season,” Huggins said. “Amber came in and shut them down for the most part, and we were able to keep Shelley in the game.”
Lake View came up with a run in the bottom of the third courtesy of Jackson. An illegal pitch plated Anna Sanderson from third.
“I think that was big, because until that point, we had been getting hits, but not driving in runs,” Huggins said.
The Wild Gators stranded seven runners during the first five innings, including three in the fourth.
After Chesterfield took a 4-1 lead in the fifth, Lake View finally was able to drive in a few runs of its own. Chessie Miller drove in Sarah Arnette with a double, and Shelley’s sacrifice fly two batters later brought Lake View to within 4-3.