Crisp Academy softball drops two to end season

DUBLIN — Just one more run.

Crisp Academy spent two innings chasing that elusive run.

Then Windsor added an insurance run in the top of the seventh and ended the Lady Wildcats’ season with a 7-5 loss Saturday in the GISA Class AA state semifinal softball tournament at Southern Pines Regional Park.

Crisp lost its earlier semifinal game, falling to Flint River Academy 9-1 to fall into the loser’s bracket.

Since the GISA format for the state semifinals is a double-elimination format, the top two teams from Saturday advance to the finals and play a best-of-three format next weekend in Dublin. Crisp Academy coach Jodie Hayes would have liked to have been one of the two.

“When you get to this point and you commit as many errors as we did, you are not going to win,” Hayes said. “And when you don’t hit the ball, you’re going to be hard-pressed to score runs. We struggled in both games doing that, which is not something we had a hard time doing this year.”

Crisp started Carson Pack on the mound against Windsor, and she was spotted an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, the big blow coming on Mandie Foster’s RBI double in the second inning to score Parker Krause.

Windsor trimmed the deficit to 3-1 in the top of the third, then took the lead for good when they sent nine batters to the plate in the fourth inning to take a commanding 6-3 advantage.

But Sidney Folsom’s double in the fourth plated two runs to pull the Lady Wildcats to within 6-5. Crisp never could get any closer.

In the first game, Flint River took an early lead and never looked back. Hayes started Maddie Krause after standout pitcher Savannah Brown was lost for the year with a hamstring injury she suffered in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

“Flint River was tough,” Hayes said. “They hit the ball well. I asked Maddie (Krause) to do something she was not used to doing.”

Hayes was proud of both pitchers, especially Pack in the second game. He said she pitched well enough to win, but the Lady Wildcats’ defense committed several costly errors and had some defensive breakdowns.