Two seniors and a freshman delivered clutch moments for the Sheridan softball team on the road against a rival Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Jackets defeated White Hall 3-2 to claim sole possession of first place in the conference.
Sheridan freshman catcher Marly Lancaster drove in every Lady Jacket run. She hit 2 for 4 with 3 RBI, with both hits coming with two outs in the later innings.
First, she tied the game at 1 in the top of the fifth inning with an RBI single which drove home shortstop Skylar Sterritt from third base.
Lancaster said she got the pitch she was looking for and put it in play.
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“I was really just praying to God,” Lancaster said. “I was just thinking, ‘Come on Marly. Do whatever you have to do. This run really matters. Whatever you need to do, just get it down.'”
Lancaster’s next trip to the plate came with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Sheridan (8-1, 4-0 in 5A-South) had two runners in scoring position. Lancaster put the ball in play and beat the throw to first as Emma Harrell scored the go-ahead run.
As the ball flew to first, Sterritt rounded third and beat the subsequent throw home to make it 3-1.
Sheridan Coach Scott Hoffman said Lancaster has been pressed into service on varsity due to a season-ending injury to a senior during basketball season.
“She’s got so much pressure on her,” Hoffman said. “Once she relaxes and starts playing, you saw today the kind of competitor she is, and she came up huge. Huge. She’s been in a funk. She needed that as bad as anybody.”
Sheridan trailed most of the game until Lancaster’s first hit. White Hall (9-7, 4-1) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when a passed ball allowed shortstop Macey Langston to score.
Senior starting pitcher Cooper Terry escaped the inning afterward by striking out the next two hitters. She went on to retire seven straight hitters, including five straight strikeouts.
Terry remained in the pitcher’s circle until the sixth inning. After Langston led off with a single, Sheridan swapped Terry with Chloe Clark, who had started the game at second base. Terry held White Hall to 1 unearned run on 4 hits with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks.
Clark’s only blemish in her two innings of relief came in the bottom of the seventh inning when White Hall centerfielder Jerrica Olson hit a 1-out solo home run to cut the Sheridan lead to 3-2.
This was Sheridan’s first game since March 20 due to weather and other cancellations. Hoffman said Terry and Clark weren’t their sharpest after the layoff but battled.
“It was a grind, and they (White Hall) have a really good roster, really good lineup,” Hoffman said. “Two senior pitchers held a really good team to 2 runs. That home run was my fault. I’ll own it. I called a bad pitch. … I felt like we grew up some today.”
White Hall pitcher Bethany Roper went the distance, holding Sheridan to 2 earned runs on 9 hits. Olson led the Lady Bulldogs at the plate, hitting 2 for 3.
Sheridan’s win did not come without controversy. In the top of the fifth inning, a White Hall batter was ruled out after being hit in the fingers with a pitch with two strikes. The White Hall coaching staff’s initial concern was checking on her, but Coach Mark Akins then protested to no avail after realizing she had been called out.
In the seventh, the batter following Olson’s homer hit a pop up in foul territory near the Sheridan dugout. The ball hit the Sheridan fielder’s glove, bounced from her glove off the fence, then back into her glove. Because it landed in her glove first, it was ruled the second out of the inning despite Akins’ protests. The next hitter grounded out to third to end the game.
White Hall falls into a tie with Texarkana for second place in the 5A-South. The Lady Bulldogs and Lady Jackets will meet again in Sheridan on May 2.