Lady Golden Eagles avenge loss with brutal victory, to have softball tournament on Saturday

BY CHRIS LANE

Sports Correspondent

Pee Dee Academy sports has a rich and long-standing tradition of excellence in the fields of play. The championship banners, the great victories and the winners produced say enough without going into details.

The same can be said for the softball team, but with one asterisk... no championships on the state level to show for it yet. In one writer’s opinion, the reason for it can be summed up in two words... “Spring Break.” The coaching is there, the talent is there, the support is there, but Spring Break is too!

This one-week get away has, without fail, put the blue and gold bats on hold and has annually sent the team into a lull that they have never dug themselves out of at the end of the year. True to form, they came out a little flat this past week in their first appearances after the break.

Pee Dee traveled to Florence Christian this past Thursday to face a team that is also rich in tradition, but may not have the overall talent they’ve had in the past. They did, however, have Sarah Ham. The sophomore pitcher took the hill and shut down the Golden Eagles for the first three innings while Florence grabbed a 4-0 lead.

Pee Dee tried to fight back, cutting the lead down to one in the fourth. Rachel Hester led off with a single, Alex Powers walked, Alex Pittman singled and Katherine Rogers also drew a walk. Then, with no outs and bases loaded, Caroline Shelley drove one into the alley that rolled all the way to the fence for a double and scored two to cut the deficit to 4-3. But, three consecutive strikeouts ended the threat with the Golden Eagles still down one run.

Down by a pair in the sixth inning, Shelley again got on base and this time, Christen Bucy would deliver in the clutch with a RBI, cutting it to 5-4 in favor of Florence Christian.

However, that would be as close as Pee Dee would get, finally falling by a 6-4 count. “That was our worst game of the year,” Golden Eagles coach Wes Daniels said after the loss. “We had seven errors today and they ( Florence Christians ) scored zero earned runs. We can be a very good team, but we have to have more drive and more focus as a team. We cannot just expect things to happen.”

His team took his words to heart when they traveled to Byrnes the following day. Four pitchers, including Summer Collins, Bucy, Powers and Daleigh Huggins combined on a no-hitter in a 19-2 thrashing of the Trojans.

The offense also got in gear early, scoring three times in the first, then combining for sixteen more in the second and third to put it away. Pittman had a perfect day with the bat, going 3-for-3 with a triple and two RBI’s. Collins also went 2-3 with two runs scored and Jeffre Rogers also had two hits and two runs scored.

The softball team’s record is now 9-3 overall and 1-0 in region play. They will travel to Trinity on Thursday for a 4 p.m. game and then will take on Marlboro Friday at 4 p.m. in Bennettsville. Then, the Golden Eagles will host a 4-team tournament on Saturday beginning at 9:30. The event will feature Pee Dee, Lake View High School, Carolina Academy and Mullins High School. “We are looking forward to this tournament,” Daniels stated. “There should be some very good softball with some good teams. We are looking forward to playing well and improving as we head toward Columbia.”