Hardee, Carter capture Morning News softball top honors

FLORENCE -- It’s hard to predict where the Darlington softball team would have finished without Sarah Hardee. The Falcons’ sophomore ace went 19-2 in the regular season with a sub-1.00 earned run average, striking out 180 batters in the process.

Hardee’s dominant pitching was crucial to the Falcons’ success as Darlington’s offense usually scratched across just two or three runs a game, if that.

Hardee’s arm helped carry the Falcons all the way back to the Class 3A state championship series for the second time in the last three years.

With that in mind, Hardee has been named the Morning News Player of the Year.

And for guiding the Dillon Wildcats to a 20-8 record and the program’s first region and district titles, Shirl Carter has been named the Morning News Coach of the Year.

For Hardee, 2010 was all about feeling more comfortable — more comfortable with her pitches and more comfortable with the pressure of being the top starter.

“I knew there was going to be a lot of pressure my freshman year, but I didn’t really know how much until we got in the playoffs last year,” Hardee said. “I think this year, I knew what to expect and I was ready for it.”

That showed in the postseason as Hardee finished with year with a 0.95 ERA with 226 strikeouts. She lost three games in the postseason with two coming in the championship series loss to J.L. Mann.

Hardee also added a screwball to her arsenal of pitches, something she said helped her quite a lot as the season progressed.

“My screwball really let me get ahead of hitters, and then I was able to mix in a changeup every so often to get them off balance, too,” she said. “Once I got used to being moved back, I started to hit my spots pretty well with all of my pitches.

Like all softball pitchers, Hardee had to get used to the new pitching distance of 43 feet, three feet further back than last year.

“It took her a little while to get used to it,” Darlington coach Tim Wiley said. “She walked more people this year than last year, but most of the walks came during the beginning of the season.

“She got a lot better as the season went on. She’s really learning how to pitch now; what to throw in certain situations.”

After knocking on the door the last couple years, the Dillon Wildcats finally were able to earn that elusive region crown. How the Wildcats finished up was a far cry from how they began, however.

“Entering spring break, we were 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the region and at that point, didn’t even know if we were going to make the playoffs,” Carter said. “But we took spring break off, came back, put some things aside and said if we wanted to do something this season, now was the time.

“We won six straight right after that.”

The squad earned a lot of firsts in school history, including the first district championship and lower state championship appearance in the program’s history. Carter said she and the rest of the players can look back on the season in the years to come with a great feeling of accomplishment.

“I don’t it really hit them while we were doing it, but looking back, I think they’ll be really proud of what they were able to achieve,” Carter said. “It’s always gratifying to know that all the work and effort you put into something was worth it.”

SOFTBALL
C — Whitney Baxley (Carvers Bay): .491 avg., 12 HR, 16 2B, 11 3B, 54 RBI, 49 R
1B — April Robson (Chesterfield): .441 avg., 2 HR, 25 RBI
2B — Rachel Gaster (Johnsonville): .562 avg., 8 2B, 6 3B, 29 RBI, 22 SB, 11 - 3, 1.33 ERA, 88 IP, 67 K, 9 BB
3B — Darby Hamer (Dillon): .351 avg., 3 HR, 4 2B, 20 RBI, 8-2, 2.35 ERA, 58 K
SS — Chessie Miller (Lake View): .513 avg., 39 RBI, 5 HR
OF — Kristan McElveen (East Clarendon): .606 avg., 12 2B, 11 SB, 35 RBI
OF — Kentesha Jenkins (Darlington): .425 avg., 2 HR, 4 3B, 5 SB, 20 RBI
OF — Shelia Tomlinson (East Clarendon): .529 avg., 4 HR, 37 RBI
P — Sarah Hardee (Darlington): 19-2, 0.95 ERA, 180 K
P — Amber Suggs (Lake View): 15-0, 0.81 ERA, 131 K, 86 IP, .412 avg., 36 RBI