Grace softball falls to RMA in final inning
Mar. 18—Grace Christian's fourth softball game of the 2023 season came down to a few plays in the final inning that didn't break the Lady Crusaders' way.
Grace, which had held off Wayne Christian in a road game two days earlier for an 8-7 victory, came back home Thursday for a game against Rocky Mount Academy. The visiting Lady Eagles held Grace to just two hits, but the game was in doubt all the way to its final play, when freshman Addison Kirk was tagged out at home plate trying to score on a wild pitch. At the time, the Lady Crusaders trailed 6-3 but had the bases loaded.
The Lady Crusaders (2-2 overall) had fallen behind 3-0 to the visitors in the very first inning, but scored three times in the bottom of the third to tie the score. A two-run double by Abby Carville drove in Victoria Thomas and Annika Johansson after Kirk had scored Grace's first run earlier in the inning.
Most of the game was a pitcher's duel in which Kirk held her own against Rocky Mount Academy (2-1), an established 2A program in its ninth season of varsity softball. However, the visitors broke the tie in the top of the seventh inning when four of the first five batters of the inning hit safely and Rocky Mount put up another three runs to regain the lead.
Grace tried to rally in its half of the inning. Kirk walked on a full-count pitch leading off, but the next two batters made outs. McKayla McDougald battled back from a 1-2 count to earn a walk, and then Johansson fought back from 0-2 and walked to put the tying run on base. This brought up Carville with a chance to possibly pull Grace even if she could repeat her third-inning double. But she never got the chance. The RMA pitcher threw her 1-0 pitch to the backstop and Kirk tried to score, but the Lady Eagle catcher recovered quickly and Kirk was tagged out short of home plate to end the game.
The Lady Crusaders, one of the youngest teams in the state with one senior, one sophomore, and the rest of the team freshman and middle-school age players, opened their season March 7 with a 16-0 rout of 4A Ravenscroft. They lost 7-1 to Freedom Christian two days later, but defeated Wayne Christian 8-7 on Tuesday. They visited Thales-Rolesville on Friday before taking a 10-day break.
McDougald was 1-for-3 and was the only other Grace player to pick up a hit on Thursday, although Kirk had a perfect day at the plate with three walks in her three plate appearances.
