END OF THE LINE Southaven sweeps Warren Central

Published 11:31 pm Saturday, April 28, 2012

A flat effort led to Warren Central’s softball season flatlining Saturday afternoon.

Southaven pitcher Hailee Kolwyck tossed a two-hitter to blank the Lady Vikes, 7-0, to finish a two-game sweep in a second-round Class 6A playoff series at Lucy Young Field.

The loss ended Warren Central’s season at 8-15. Southaven (19-9-1) advanced to the third round to play South Panola, which swept a doubleheader and eliminated Northwest Rankin on Saturday.

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Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said her team had no spark, at the plate or in the field.

“We had a rough go of it all the way around,” McGivney said. “We were a lot flat. We didn’t come ready to play. We didn’t hit the ball, we hit too many batters and made some bad throws.”

The loss seemed to epitomize Warren Central’s up and down season. It won eight games against a tough schedule, along with the Division 4-6A title, but struggled offensively after losing Sissy Hearn. The 2010 Vicksburg Post Player of the Year hurt her wrist before the season and only made a cameo appearance in one game, on senior night.

Senior shortstop Krista Cortezie also missed Saturday’s game with an injury.

“It was definitely an uphill struggle,” McGivney said. “But, of the girls who played today, we’re only losing a center fielder (Katie Busby).”

A bright spot for WC was the growth of the freshmen battery of pitcher Darby Gain and catcher Karley Hinson. Gain won eight games this season and had a chance to close out Game 1 of this series before the Lady Chargers rallied with two runs in the seventh for a walk-off victory.

Hinson was WC’s top hitter and added to those numbers with a seventh-inning triple Saturday. She also drew the only walk issued by Kolwyck.

Southaven coach Shane Staten said Kolwyck is a much harder thrower than what the Lady Vikes faced in Thursday’s Game 1.

“We had a different pitcher today and she (Kolwyck) kept them off-balance and got her shutout,” Staten said. “Our defense did a great job. We had been making a good number of errors, but today we cut it down to just one.”

Southaven opened the game with a triple from Jessie Bumpous, but she was later tagged out at the plate after trying to score on a wild pitch. Allison Williams, who walked, scored the first run on a sacrifice fly by Kolwyck.

In the fourth inning, Daveeda Johnson had an RBI single to up the lead to 2-0. The Lady Chargers added four in the fifth, as Williams and Ashley James led off with singles. Gain then hit a batter and walked the next to end her day.