Bowling Green School’s Cassidy Spears broke a tie with a two-run home run in the sixth inning and Madelyn Burch was solid in the pitching circle as the Lady Buccaneers were victorious over three-time Class AAA state champion Silliman Institute, 4-2, at home Monday.
Bowling Green trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but that changed by the time the third out was recorded.
Pinch hitter Dixie Camille opened the inning with a double down the left field line. Pinch runner Allie McCain went to third on Breanna Tobey’s groundout to shortstop. Landry Dupont reached on an RBI error after she hit a ball to third that was booted. McCain scored to tie the game at 2-2.
Spears, a freshman, was next with a runner on first and one out and she came through big time.
Spears absolutely crushed a pitch to centerfield. The only question after it left her bat was, where would it land? It was a no-doubt, two run homer and the Lady Buccaneers had the lead, 4-2.
“I’ve been hitting really bad and I just told myself to get a base hit and when I did, I hit it over.” Spears said.
Bowling Green coach David Hood Burris said Spears is swinging the bat well.
“She told you that she hasn’t been hitting well, but to her, not hitting well is not going 4-for-4 with two home runs. She’s just a freshman, but she expects a lot of herself and she’s been kind of down. I think she was 2-for-4 last game with a couple of RBIs, but I knew it was a matter of time for her.
“She’s got so much power and they left one out over the plate, made a mistake and she made them pay.”
Burch threw another solid game. She went the distance, allowing two runs, one earned on two hits with 14 strikeouts and five walks. She also had a hit offensively.
“She’s lights out. She’s pitched like that for us all year,” Burris said. “You just saw a carbon copy of every game she’s pitched right there. As long as she can keep us in the game like that and we give up two runs, we’re going to be able to win a lot of ball games because I think we can score more than two most games we play.”
Bowling Green took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Dupont, who had two hits singled, with one out. Spears then singled to left for her first of two hits, but the ball got past the fielder and rolled to the wall. Dupont went to third and raced home with the game’s first run.
Silliman responded in the fifth inning with two runs of their own. Shelby Morris walked with one out. Cayley Pelt walked after the second out. Both runners moved up on a passed ball and then Loren Higginbothem drove home both players with a two-run single to left to give her team a 2-1 lead.
Bowling Green took the lead with three runs in the sixth, highlighted by Spears’ homer in the 4-2 victory.
“It’s a big win for our program,” Burris said. “We haven’t beaten them in two years that I know of. They’re three-time defending state champs. I told the girls before the game that I thought they had it in them to win. We played them close last Monday at their place (7-5 loss) and I said that they’re not going to overlook y’all because y’all scared them last Monday. But they’re going to play better, and y’all are going to have to play better and that’s what we did.
“We didn’t play as clean as I thought we could have on defense, but we’ll get that fixed and that’ll come. The big thing was, we got down late in the ballgame and they fought back and took the lead. It’s just a real big win for our program and we’re not going to get overlooked now.
“When you beat the three-time in a row defending state champs, that kind of serves notice that you’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”
Morgan Lusk also had a hit for Bowling Green.
Up next, the Lady Bucs will compete in the Silliman Institute Tournament on Saturday.