Burlington Central comes back to beat Hampshire
Burlington Central softball coach Cray Allen did not want his Rockets to be “that team.”
“I did not want to be that story that got out to all the rest of the teams by 6:30,” Allen said. “We didn’t want to be that team.”
But until the bottom of the fifth inning on Rocket Hill Tuesday, it looked like Twitter and Facebook might be lighting up with some upset news.
The No. 8 Rockets righted the ship in time, though, scoring 9 runs in their final two at-bats to beat Hampshire 13-4 in one semifinal of the Class 3A Burlington Central regional.
Top-seeded Central (27-8) will face the winner of today’s semifinal between No. 2 DeKalb and No. 3 Sycamore in the 11 a.m. championship game on Saturday.
Sophomore Brooke Gaylord, who gave up a 3-run triple to Hampshire’s Jordan Hook in the third inning, when the Whip-Purs ended up leading 4-1, redeemed herself in a big way with her bat, blasting a 2-run home run in the bottom of the fifth, part of the Rockets’ 6-run inning that turned a 4-4 game into a 10-4 BC lead. She then ripped an RBI triple in the sixth to extend the lead.
“I just know no matter what I have to help my team and if I’m not doing that great on defense I can help with my offense,” she said.
It was Brooke Gaylord’s freshman sister, Kassi, and freshman Angie Morrow who turned the lights out on Hampshire’s bats. Kassi Gaylord (3-0) pitched the fourth and fifth innings, allowing only a two-out bunt single to Sara Finn in the fourth. Morrow came on in the sixth and retired all 6 batters she faced, striking out the last four.
“Kassi came in and once she was reminded that we have a defense it was pretty easy for her,” Allen said. “She learned something about the game today and about being a pitcher.”
Hampshire, which came within minutes of forfeiting the game waiting for its ninth player to arrive, fell behind 1-0 in the second when Sarah Kisch’s one-out double drove home Haley Albamonte, who led the inning off with a single. But with one out in the top of the third, Finn and Haley Widmayer each beat out one-out bunts, Tiffany Bentley walked and after a strikeout for the second out, Hook laced a 3-2 pitch to the gap in left-center putting the Whip-Purs (11-24) ahead 3-1. Becca Hurst then singled home Hook and suddenly an upset was in the making.
But the Rockets chipped away, using two Hampshire errors to score Courtni Neubauer, who walked and stole second in the bottom of the inning, to make it 4-2. BC tied the game in the fourth, using a 3-base outfield error, an RBI single from Kisch and an RBI double from Kassi Gaylord to score the runs.
Central then sent 10 batters to the plate in the fifth to put the game away. In addition to Brooke Gaylord’s home run, Lauren King had an RBI double and Rebecca Roscher a two-run double.
“There was a little pressure on us today,” Allen said. “We’re at our place, we beat Hampshire 10-0 a month ago ... but once we got the rhythm going we were OK.”
Jen Hurst took the loss for the Whip-Purs, who got 2 hits each from Hook and Finn.
“It was exciting the first four innings,” said Hampshire coach Ken Bram of his final game after six years as the Whip-Purs’ head coach. “We only had nine players available today and we made a few mistakes and you can’t do that against Burlington. But the girls gave it all and they tried hard. Burlington Central is a great team.”