District III wins thriller over Southwest

Logan Green knocked in Bethany Wheatley with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning as the host District III team (Laurel, Del.) beat the USA Southwest team 3-2 on Tuesday, Aug. 9.

Wheatley led off the inning with a towering double to left-center and advanced to third on a groundout by Alyssa Givens. With one out, Green drilled a clean single off Southwest’s Erica Reyes, setting off a boisterous reaction from the host team’s crowd.

The game started out as a pitching duel between Green and Southwest’s Michaela Bram. Both teams were scoreless through the first two innings, until Southwest (El Campo, Texas) broke through in the top of the third. Taylor Michaelsen led off the inning with a walk, and moved to third on a single by Kaleigh Kutac. Bram then hit a double to center that plated both runners, giving Southwest a 2-0 lead.

A brief rain storm and a flash of lightning suspended the game for a while in the top of the fourth, and it seemed that District III might have caught a little lightning in a bottle at that time.

Green struck out three Southwest batters in the top of the fourth after play resumed, and District III knotted up the game in the bottom half of the inning.

Green led off the inning with a double, and Alison Pusey joined her on the bases with a one-out walk. Bree Venables then smoked a two-run double to right to knock in both runners and tie the game 2-2.

Regan Green took the ball for District III in the top of the fifth inning and shut out Southwest over the final three innings of the game, recording six strikeouts along the way.

District III looked like they were going to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sara Jo Whaley led off by reaching on an error, and Pusey drew a walk to put two runners on with no outs. Bram retired two in a row before walking Emily Pusey to lead the bases, but she was able to get Alexis Hudson to ground out to first to end the inning.

That set the stage for Green’s heroics in the seventh.

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