The Williamsburg Lady Wildcats defeated Franklin Monroe 8-0 in the regional championship game to advance to the state final four in Akron on Thursday, June 1, 2017.

The Williamsburg Lady Wildcats defeated Franklin Monroe 8-0 in the regional championship game to advance to the state final four in Akron on Thursday, June 1, 2017.

By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

For the second consecutive season, the Williamsburg Lady Wildcats’ softball team is heading to the state semifinals.

The Lady Wildcats advanced to the regional finals by defeating Rockford Parkway 6-2 on Wednesday, May 24. Williamsburg scored five runs in the third inning, aided greatly by Williamsburg’s Rylee Clark, who hit a bases-clearing three-run double in the third inning as part of a five-run outburst by the Lady Wildcats. Faith Golden added an RBI single in the sixth inning to cap off the scoring output for Williamsburg. Carly Wagers struck out 12 batters in the game, though she also walked six en route to her 15th win of the year.

Three days later, Wagers returned to the circle with a trip to the state semifinals on the line against Franklin Monroe. The junior dominated, striking out 15 batters in an 8-0 no-hit victory to send the Lady Wildcats to Akron.

Wagers struck out a pair in the top of the first. The Lady Wildcats answered with four runs in their half of the first inning. Peyton Fisher singled, moved to second on a bunt and scored on a bad throw to put Williamsburg on top 1-0. Wagers followed Golden’s bunt with a single. Both runners scored when Rylee Clark bounced a ball into right field to score both runners.

After a strikeout, Kara Bailey dropped down a bunt to bring home the fourth run of the inning. Williamsburg head coach Rick Healey said scoring early is key in any sport.

“In any game, it doesn’t matter the sport, if you get on top out of the gate, it’s going to do two things: it’s going to take your momentum and propel it forward and it’s going to take the other team’s momentum and kill it,” Healey said. “We couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”

Williamsburg added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning. Wagers led off with a walk and Clark followed with a single. Kacey Smith tripled in both to make it 6-0 Williamsburg.

Two innings later, Wagers dropped a flair into left field for a double. Smith bunted Wagers to third, and Bailey doubled in Middendorf, who had ran for Wagers, to make it 7-0.

A Fisher sac fly in the bottom of the sixth made it 8-0 Williamsburg.

Williamsburg did all of their damage by stringing base hits together instead of using the home run ball to do it for them. The Lady Wildcats entered the game with 41 on the season, but the size of Stebbins Field played a role in keeping their bats in play.

“This is a big park,” Healey said. “I stepped it off, I’d say it’s probably 225 down the lines, 230 or 35 to center, it’s a big park. It’s one of those, I’ve done this long enough to know that the deeper you get in, sometimes you have to manufacture. That’s the small ball. There are some things we need to work on still moving forward, hopefully it’ll pay dividends.”

Wagers’ no-hitter consisted of 15 strikeouts, a pair of shallow flyouts and a runner caught stealing second base. Healey said he warmed up his other pitcher, Smith, just in case.

“I warmed [Smith] up, just to try to get her some work, but how do you take a pitcher out when she has a no-hitter going?” Healey said. “You don’t, you just don’t. For her to throw a no-hitter in the regional finals, shut the team out, it speaks volumes of her. She’s just a junior, I’m excited about next year.”

The Lady Wildcats return to Akron for the second consecutive season, and most of the players on this season’s team were on last year’s squad that made the trip to Firestone Stadium. Healey said those players will be counted on to help the younger players deal with their emotions.

“It has already shown,” Healey said. “The first game that we played, with Covington, I could tell that my younger kids had a lot of nerves, a lot of jitters. It was less the last game, and I don’t think there was any today. There will be some up there because of the environment and the setting, but for the most part it’s going to be really big. The kids that have been there will be able to talk to the freshman and say ‘Hey, it’s another game.’ That’s got to be our approach, it’s another game.”

Williamsburg’s state semifinal tilt against Carey High School is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 1 after the completion of Lucas High School and Danville High School in the other semifinal match at 3 p.m.

For complete coverage of the Lady Wildcats’ tilt against Carey in the state semifinals, be sure to follow the Clermont Sun on Twitter and Instagram at ClerSunSports. A complete recap of the team’s trip to Akron can be found in the June 8 edition of the Clermont Sun.