Brookville, Rustburg reach final

By Ted Allen

Published: May 21, 2008

RUSTBURG — From bad hops and fainting spells to costly errors and a late-inning rally, Wednesday night’s Seminole District softball tournament semifinals at Rustburg had a little bit of everything.

Regular-season champion Brookville (12-4) got a couple fortunate bounces in the second inning of its 3-0 win over Liberty (13-7), which was delayed for 30 minutes before the start of the seventh when Bees catcher Summer Jones passed out twice in the dugout.

“It was scary,” Brookville second baseman Hope Johnson said. “ I didn’t know what happened. I looked over there and our toughest player is down.”

She would be surprised if Jones isn’t back in her catcher’s gear for Friday’s district championship game against Rustburg, starting at 7 p.m.

“Knowing Summer, she’ll come back from anything,” said Johnson, Brookville’s only freshman. “Even if she gets hit (on a play at the plate), she’ll let a little grunt out and be ready to go.”

Rustburg, which upset Amherst in Monday’s quarterfinal round, pulled off another shocker to reach Friday’s final. The Red Devils (6-12) capitalized on five Jefferson Forest errors to rally from a 4-0 first-inning deficit and beat the Cavaliers (14-7) for the second time in three tries this season, 7-4.

“We made errors, dropped fly balls and let balls get by us,” JF coach Gary Harris said. “That’s why they scored. This year’s team (defense) is very inconsistent. You aren’t going to win games and you’re not going to win championships if you make those kind of mistakes.”

Mollie Moses started Rustburg’s three-run rally in the seventh with a double to right center off the glove of Forest’s center fielder, who would have had to have made a shoestring catch. Frances Booth brought her home with the go-ahead run with a suicide squeeze, reaching safely after Carly Farmer’s toss back to Amber Smith was too late to get Moses at the plate.

She then scored after Sammie Bogolin, who had doubled home the tying runs in the fifth, singled to center and advanced to second when the ball got past Mattie Witt to the fence.

“Once we got the tying run, it was definitely a rush,” Moses said. “I’m pumped.”

Rustburg center fielder Adriane Roberts had kept the game tied at 4 in the bottom of the sixth when she threw out Ashley Parsons, who was pinch hitting for Smith, on a single to center by Kristie Dooley, with catcher Bogolin applying the tag.

“We’ve been working on that play all week,” Red Devils coach Michele Riddle said.

“You’ve got to take a chance with a play like that,” Harris added of sending Parsons from second. “That was the only chance we had since the first inning.”

JF scored four unearned runs in the first and looked like it might break the game open as it did the last time in Forest.

“We beat them once and they slaughtered us last time,” Riddle said. “I’m very proud of the girls. They never gave up. They were cheering for each other the whole time, they stayed confident and they chipped away (at Forest’s lead). We’re definitely glad to be playing here at home.

“A lot of people had key hits,” she added. “We stayed all together and everybody did something good. Hopefully, we’re going to peak at the right time.”

In the first game, Brookville got a stellar pitching performance by Nicole Defillipo, who tossed a three-hit shutout, striking out nine Minettes.

“Nicole threw well today,” Bees coach Larry Kidd said. “She hit her spots and had her changeup working. She’s struggled with it and now she’s getting more consistent.”

Brookville got all the runs it would need in the third, when Johnson reached on a bad-hop single to shortstop Savanah Graham before Megan Yeaples followed with a triple to left that took a high bounce over Brandy Lacy.

“Liberty’s a quality team and they’re always prepared,” Kidd said. “That’s one of those things you have no control over. I know it’s frustrating.”

“That hurt,” added Minettes coach Sherry Story, who didn’t blame the loss on the bad hops. “We didn’t hit the ball. When you can’t score one run, you can’t win the game. (Defilippo) threw well (but) we let all the fastballs go by and swung at all the changeups.”