DUBLIN — West Bladen found itself in the fight of its playoff life on Wednesday against visiting Farmville Central, but found some Lady Knights diamond magic with two outs in the sixth inning that led them to a 5-2 win in the first round of the state’s Class 2-A competition.
But before the fireworks could happen, West Bladen was being held to just one hit — a second-inning solo home run to dead center by Carley Dawson — through the first five innings.
The Lady Jaguars, meanwhile, nicked West Bladen pitcher Sophia Singletary for a run on two hits an a stolen base in the top of the first inning, then nicked her again for a run on two hits, a stolen base and wild pitch in the second inning to build a 2-0 advantage.
Dawson’s home run cut the gap to 2-1.
That lead looked bigger and bigger as each inning went by for the Lady Knights. They managed to threaten in the bottom of the fourth when Alanna Ludlum reached when her pop-up behind second base fell for an error, and she went to second on Laikyn Pait’s floyout. But Dawson ripped a pitch straight back to the pitcher, who caught it, wheeled and doubled up Ludlum at second to end the inning.
Over the first five innings, the Lady Knights hit 10 fly balls and just two ground balls.
“We talked about that after every inning,” West Bladen coach Joey Autry said. “We just kept telling them to keep battling.”
Those talks paid off in the sixth inning.
Kassidy Anderson got things going with a one-out single to left and, after she was bunted to second by Logan Autry, Ludlum beat out an infield hit to put runners at the corners. Moments later, Pait slugged a two-run double to the fence in right-center that brought home the tying and go-ahead runs. A wild pitch sent Pait to third and Dawson legged out an infield hit to put runners at the corners again — just ahead of Singletary’s two-run double to left that soared over the fielder’s head and gave West Bladen a 5-2 lead.
The Lady Knights committed their only two errors of the game on the same play, allowing a runner to second, but Singletary easily shut things down to seal the win.
“Laikyn has been struggling lately, but she really came through,” Coach Autry said. “Alanna and Carley beating out those infield hits and Sophia giving us that padding with a big hit really helped — and Sophia pitched a really solid game.”
Singletary twirled a complete-game for the win, giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out two.
At the plate, Dawson was 2-for-4 with a home run and RBI; Singletary was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI; Pait was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI.
The Lady Knights, now 20-3, will face Washington in the second round at West Bladen on either Friday or Saturday.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.