In the end, the mountain was too high for William Carey to climb successfully.
The Crusaders battled back after an opening-game defeat to reach Wednesday’s championship round of the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round Regional against Webber International, then won a marathon 12-inning contest to force a decisive second game.
But after the dramatic 3-0 win in the first game, Carey surrendered two runs in the top of the first inning of the second game on two errors and never recovered in a 5-1 loss in the winner-take-all game at Joseph and Mary Fail Field on the WCU campus.
The Warriors (42-22) return to central Florida to prepare for the NAIA World Series at Columbus, Georgia, scheduled to begin May 26. The Crusaders finished 48-11.
“It hurts when you lose that first game and have to come back,” said Carey coach Craig Fletcher. “It was the best-case scenario for us, and these kids were resilient. They fought. Tough way to start that last game, with the two errors. That got us down, and we never quite recovered.”
The first game was three and a half hours of tension at the highest level, as Carey’s Haley Nations battled, first right-hander Kayla Swinson, then lefty Morgan Mills for Webber.
After 12 innings and 187 pitches, it was Nations (25-6) that stood tallest, striking out 19 batters, allowing just three hits and three walks.
“Had to be my dropball, and my screwball were working really well for me,” said Nations, a junior left-hander.
Nations was never really tested until the late innings, when she did her best work. The Warriors didn’t get a runner to third until the bottom of the ninth inning, when could mean the difference between getting ready to play again or the end of the season.
“If I had taken Haley out of that game, she’d have hit me in the face with a bat,” Fletcher said. “She said, ‘Coach, I’ve got this. I want this.’ That’s been who she’s been her whole time here.”
But Webber’s duo of Swinson and Mills matched Nations zero for zero. The Crusaders opened the day with a threat in the top of the first inning, as junior Aleigha Walden reached on an infield single to third to lead off the game.
She stole second and went to third on a groundout, but Swinson got a strikeout to get out of the inning. For Walden, it was the beginning of a productive day, as she was 6 for 9 in the two games.
“(Swinson) mostly came inside to me,” said Walden. “But I’ve always been one of those hitters that if the first pitch is there, I’m going to go for it. (Mills) was a big speed change, and I think when she came in everyone’s adrenalin was up and we wanted it to end.
“Once we adjusted, we had some success against her.”
Carey did not mount another serious threat until the first of the five extra innings. Leading off the eighth, senior Miranda Busby was hit by a pitch, then with one out, she avoided a tag on a groundball to second.
With two outs, sophomore Carley Kidder drew a walk to load the bases and brought Warrior coach Kristy Burton out of the dugout for a pitching change. Swinson finished with just two hits allowed, six strikeouts and three walks.
Mills did her job, getting a grounder for a force at third for the final out of the inning.
“It takes us a while to make some adjustments, but I’m glad we did,” said Walden. “Making it to the third day of a regional has been a goal of mine since I’ve been at Carey, so getting to win that first one was pretty big.”
It took a while, but the Crusaders finally started figuring out Mills in the tenth, but not before high drama in the bottom of the ninth.
With one out, Thompson singled, stole second and took third on a flyball to right. A walk put runners on the corners, but Nations got out the jam with a strikeout.
It was Carey’s turn to threaten in the top of the tenth, when Busby smacked a leadoff double into the leftfield corner and Davis beat out a bunt single then stole second to put runners at second and third with none out.
But Mills got a strikeout, then Busby hesitated after trying to score on a comebacker to the pitcher and was tagged out in a rundown. Mills then got out of the inning with a groundout.
“It was just, keep trusting my spin, fill up the zone, let my defense work behind me and let my catcher work for me, and trust that we would get some runs on the board,” said Nations. “I started to get a little fatigued, but I knew I had to keep pushing it.”
Nations needed to be strong, because the Warriors had their best chance to end the game in the bottom of the eleventh, loading the bases after the Crusaders committed the only error of the game with one out.
The error, off the bat of Webber sophomore Brandy Barquin, was preceded and followed by strikeouts, but the Warriors’ next two batters, junior Alycia Celia and senior Kelsea Friend, reach on bunt singles in front of the plate that Nations wisely kept in her glove.
With tensions mounting, Nations battled Thompson through an eight-pitch at-bat before getting the Warrior third baseman on a groundout to first.
Sophomore Susie LeBert started the Crusaders’ winning rally in the twelfth with a seeing-eye single into left that just did elude the gloves of Thompson and shortstop Mary-Margaret Maggard.
Busby moved LeBert over with a sacrifice, then Davis beat out a bunt single and stole second to put runners at second and third with none out, and this time the Crusaders cashed it in.
Walden skipped a single inside the leftfield line for an RBI single, with Davis staying at second, and both runners moved up on a groundout to first. A walk to Kidder loaded the bases and cleanup hitter Mary Grace Turner hit a two-run single to left.
Buoyed with 3-0 lead, Nations retired the Warriors in order in the bottom of the inning, setting up the climactic final game.
“I was hoping not to be called (to pitch in the second game), but I was ready if I needed to be,” said Nations. “I came to the coach about the third inning and told him I could go. He wasn’t sure, but I was confident I could get it done if I had to.”
Unfortunately, the deciding game was something of a letdown, after the lengthy drama of the first game. Senior right-hander Megan Dudenhefer was in trouble from the start and the Crusaders didn’t help her with two costly errors.
“Our mood was actually a little up, I think,” said Walden. “After the first inning was over, we kind of went, ‘uh, I think we need to score,’ and we tried to rush it for a couple of innings. But all of us gave it our best.”
Batting as the visitors, the Warriors wasted no time getting on the board. Friend drew a leadoff walk and stole second. Thompson popped out to first, but Kidder tried to get Friend going back to second on the play and threw the ball into leftfield.
Maggard singled home the run, then sophomore Paysee Crow sacrificed, and the throw sailed over Kidder’s head to the fence down the rightfield line, allowing Maggard to race around from first to score and make it 2-0.
“I know we were (mentally fatigued after the first game),” Fletcher said. “We talked about it between games that the team that had the most energy would probably be the team that would win.
“I think we were ready to play, but we had the walk and the two errors, and I think that took a lot of the air out of us. We just weren’t able to recover.”
With both of her top two pitchers having had length stints in the opener, Burton rolled the dice with sophomore right-hander Jenn Chaudoin in the circle.
“It’s simple; we’re one arm,” said Burton. “We’ve been one arm all year. Our pitching staff is one team, and we trust any of our girls to go out and do the job. They’ve worked hard all year, so any kid we put in there, we trust them 100 percent.”
Chaudoin (8-9) rewarded her coach’s faith with a workmanlike performance, going five innings, allowing a run on four hits. She only struck out one, but she only walked one. Swinson came on to pitch the final two innings for Webber.
The Crusaders got their only run in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Rachel Rodriguez walked to lead off, but was forced at second on a ball by Davis. Walden singled, went to second on a force at third, stole third and scored on a throwing error in the infield.
Carey had a mild threat in the fifth, when Busby got a leadoff single and Walden reached on a two-out bunt single, but Chaudoin’s last pitch was a groundout to Thompson at third.
Nations was indeed called on to pitch after the Warriors took advantage of another critical error to score three more unearned runs off Dudenhefer.
A leadoff walk was forced at second, but the Warriors loaded the bases on a bunt single by Friend and an error on a bobbled ball in the infield.
Maggard made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly, then Crow blasted the next pitch into leftfield for a two-run single. A strikeout ended the night for Dudenhefer (21-5). She allowed all five runs, none of which were earned, struck out five and walked four.
Nations did indeed come on to pitch the last two innings, with a dropped third strike in the sixth the only baserunner she allowed, but the Crusaders were unable to dent Swinson.
Carey had two two-out singles in the sixth, and Swinson allowed an infield single and a hit batter in the seventh, with neither threat resulting in runs.
“I’m very proud of this team,” Fletcher said. “They fought hard to make it back to have these opportunities, but we just couldn’t make it.”
