When Ryleigh French worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth, Hancock County Head Coach Dwayne Wroe quickly replaced her with a courtesy runner – a move that may often be overlooked. Subbing in Carolina Jones, she quickly swiped second base, beating the throw handily – advanced to third on a sacrifice fly, and then waltzed home on an Ava Riggs walk-off double.
“Carolina is a big track star, and I told her track is her future,” Wroe said. “If she can just show up when she can and run for us, she’s a huge part of our game. When you can put somebody like that in to run for you, steal that base, and put that pressure on them. She’s huge and has been great for us all year.”
Once the dust settled, Hancock County had stunned Ohio County 4-3 to advance to the 3rd Region Tournament semi-finals.
“Both teams laid it on the line, and we just caught some breaks there in the end when we had to have them,” Wroe said. “That’s all you can do at this stage of the game. I told them you don’t have to win pretty; winning ugly is good too because you are just trying to advance. We were able to do that.”
Ohio County drew first blood, scoring two runs in the second and hitting a solo shot in the third. Gracie Gaynor took over for the Lady Hornets in the top of the third and neutralized Ohio County’s offense the rest of the way, striking out four over six shutout innings.
“Gaynor came in and did a great job of shutting them down,” Wroe said. “She kept the lead to 3-0 and gave us a chance.”
It took until the bottom of the fifth for the Lady Hornets to finally get on the scoreboard. Ansley House led off the inning with a single and advanced to second when Madyson Higdon was hit by a pitch. French bunted both runners over and Aubree Mosby walked to load the bases.
Ohio County struck out the next batter, but Audrey Carnes singled to cut the lead to 3-2.
“We’ve been resilient all year,” Wroe said. “We have started some games where we scored some runs and then leveled off, and then there are games where we haven’t scored for a few innings, and then all of a sudden, we get our timing down on the pitchers.”
Still trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Mosby led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and then scurried to third on a fielder’s choice. Gracie Gaynor, Jordyn Waltrip, and Bella Bryant all worked two-out walks to tie the game 3-3, but Ohio County escaped the jam on a line drive out.
“The strike zone was pretty tight, and we wanted to take till we got a strike and not help the pitcher out,” Wroe said.
Awaiting Hancock County in the 3rd Region Tournament semis is Apollo, whom they lost to earlier in the season, 5-0.
“We’re going to face a good pitcher,” Wroe said. “We are going to have to be disciplined at the plate, and put some good swings on it.”
