Sports fanatics often say defense wins championships.
That’s yet to be seen in the Class 7A softball playoffs, but defense certainly played a part in Ocean Springs’ 6-2 home victory over the Petal Lady Panthers on Monday.
Ocean Springs was able to get three double plays, two of them with Petal threatening to score. That allowed the Lady Greyhounds to keep Petal at bay and maintain the lead for the Game 3 series win, which sent Ocean Springs to the South State championship series against the unbeaten and nationally ranked Northwest Rankin Lady Cougars.
Petal jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and then Ocean Springs rallied in the second.
Laynee Davis led off with a walk. After a flyout, Presley Newport stepped up with a runner at first and one out and hit a bloop single to shallow left, moving Davis to second. After another flyout, Brooklyn Peterson walked to load the bases. Kerrigan Scott knocked in the first run of the game for the Lady Greyhounds with a Texas Leaguer, dropping in center, scoring Davis, and leaving the bases loaded.
Gracie McDonald then reached on an error and Zori Terry, running for Newport, scored. K’lee Gum hit a hard single to right, scoring Peterson and putting Ocean Springs up 3-1. That’s all the Lady Greyhounds needed.
“This season we’ve had so many double plays in key situations and tonight it killed their momentum when they were trying to get something done,” said Ocean Springs coach Lindsay O’Brien. “We knew it was going to be tough and our crowd helped. This is one year where home-field advantage was huge and I knew everyone was going to show up for us and they did.
“The seniors remember when Petal beat us out two years ago and they were bound and determined to win tonight, and they played like it.”
The first double play came in the fourth. Kam Lofton walked for the Lady Panthers to start the inning. Then she started running and Macy Graham popped it up in the infield. Peterson caught the ball and threw it to first baseman Caitlyn Ludwig, doubling up Lofton for the out.
In the fifth, the first two runners reached and with runners at first and second, Sarah Grace Miller hit a hard ground ball to third, Davis swooped it up, stepped on third, and threw to first for the out. The next batter popped out.
Then the final double play came in the last inning. Petal had already scored a run and was looking for more when Taylor Foster lined one to Gum at shortstop. She threw to Scott at second, sealing the game for Ocean Springs.
The Lady Greyhounds were able to put the game away in the bottom of the sixth.
Peterson walked and Scott reached on an error. Then the top-of-the-order speed came through as McDonald beat out an infield single and Peterson was able to score with Scott moving to second.
Scott and McDonald moved up on a double steal, setting up a sacrifice fly by Gum to score Scott. After McDonald stole third, Farrah James doubled to right, scoring McDonald and putting the Lady Greyhounds up 6-1.
McDonald was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, a run scored and two RBIs. Gum was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Scott went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Peterson was the winning pitcher, giving two runs on five hits.
Now Ocean Springs has the task of facing 30-0 Northwest Rankin, the No. 3 team in the nation.
“Northwest Rankin is good, but we are just going to play it one pitch at a time,” said O’Brien, in her 12th year at Ocean Springs. “It’s the playoffs so you never know. Records mean nothing at this point in the season. The goal is to win and survive.”
The Lady Greyhounds will get their chance Thursday when they play at Brandon to take on Northwest Rankin at 6 p.m.
