Laney softball comes from behind to complete season sweep of South Brunswick
Forget a pencil, you could use a Sharpie to mark this game down as a one-run thriller.
It was not a 1-0 final like the last four meetings, but Laney put up the zeroes that it needed over the final 6.2 innings to allow its offense to catch up and complete a season sweep of South Brunswick with a 3-2 win.
The victory not only keeps the Buccaneers atop the Mideastern Conference standings, but it maintains a lead for the league's top 4A seed in May's postseason.
Three batters into the game, South Brunswick's Kina Davis ripped momentum towards the road side. A two-run home run in the first, and her seventh of the season, gave the Cougars what would end up being their only offense of the night.
Over the next four innings, the right-hander would let the long ball help her own cause thanks to eight strikeouts in the circle. She finished with ten for the game.
Meanwhile, Makenzi Curry was working on a gem of her own, and taking care of business at the plate. She started the bottom of the fourth with a single to right, and her courtesy runner Kailynn Boepple would come around to score on a two-out double to right from Isabella Stevens.
Laney pulled even in the fifth.
Freshman Carly Krueger got the offense going with a double to left, and scored with two outs after the lineup flipped back over to Curry. The senior punched a game-tying single through the left side to knot things at 2-2.
The momentum carried over to the field where the Bucs gunned down a runner trying to go first to third with two down in the top of the sixth.
Makenly Horrell stepped to the plate in the bottom half of the inning and launched a go-ahead solo shot to left for a 3-2 advantage.
Curry struck out a pair in the seventh before facing Davis (who stepped to the plate 3-for-3) with the game on the line. With the tying run in scoring position, Davis grounded a ball to Layla Carr at short. Carr flipped to Brileigh Mathews for the force out to secure Laney's ninth win in the last ten games.
The Buccaneers are now 13-2 overall and 9-1 in conference play. They travel to Hoggard next week for another big conference showdown.
South Brunswick dropped to 15-4 this season. They will put their 8-2 conference record on the line at home against Topsail on Tuesday.
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