The Prince George Royals are used to seeing excellent pitching. If it's not ace Lauren Vinson during practice, it's Thomas Dale's Lacey Waldrop or Dinwiddie's Taylor Thorpe or Matoaca's Melissa Skoff. The Royals faced another good one on Wednesday night in Midlothian's Logan Carter.
For four innings Vinson and Carter butted heads, combining for only four hits. However, Prince George first baseman Jami Davis changed Carter's fate in the fifth inning. Davis broke a scoreless tie with a two-out RBI single to give the Royals the momentum on their way to a 2-0 victory in the opening round of the Central Region tournament.
"Midlo plays sound softball, ..." said Prince George coach Pat Waguespack. "... You have to earn everything you get. It was just a tough battle."
Offensively, both teams struggled to earn much of anything early on. Vinson and Carter mowed down hitters left and right, combining for 18 strikeouts, including 13 in the first four innings.
In fact, neither team could move a runner past third base until Davis’ RBI in the fifth. The first credible threat came from Midlothian in the top of the fourth. Vinson led off with a rare miscue, hitting Midlothian leftfielder Whitney Smith on the leg. Alexis Livingston followed with a single, putting runners on first and second with no outs. However, Vinson responded by striking out the next two batters and forcing a groundout to shortstop to end the threat.
After an uneventful top half of the fifth, the Royals finally got things going in the bottom half. Kaitlyn Johnson led off the inning by reaching on an error. Johnson hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to left field, but the ball popped out of Smith's glove, allowing the runner to reach. Johnson was replaced on the base paths by Tessa Allen. Allen advanced to second on a sacrifice from Ashley Richeson. After a fly out by Taylor Worley, Davis came through with her big hit. Davis hit a line drive towards second base which was just a tad too high for the second baseman to get her entire glove on. Allen scored from second after the throw from right field was cut off by Carter.
With the lead in hand, Vinson went back to work in the top half of the sixth, striking out the side and turning the game back over to the offense.
"Lauren is going to step up when the games count like she has all year," Waguespack said. "As they get bigger, hopefully she’ll continue to step up like the caliber pitcher that she is."
In the bottom half of the inning, the bottom portion of the Royals lineup came through in the clutch. With two outs, Maggie Roberts and Ginny Miller came through with back-to-back singles. Johnson followed suit with a single of her own, a slow roller up the middle that was too far away from either middle infielder to grab. Roberts scored on the play, giving the Lady Royals a 2-0 lead.
"I thought that was important that we used the whole lineup to get it done tonight," Waguespack said. "... Hopefully that builds their confidence and we'll have others ready to come through at any time."
Vinson shut things down in the top of the seventh to give the Royals the win and a spot in the region semifinals, but not without a little bit of drama at the end.
Midlothian's Paula Shrum and Alex Sandborn led off the inning with back-to-back singles. However, Sandborn's single was preceded by an out at second. Casey Kenny followed with a blooper to right that was mishandled by Maggie Roberts, but Sandborn was tagged out at second after slipping off the base. The Royals ace didn't leave things to chance at the end, however, striking out Carter to end the game.
