4A Softball Championship Recap: West Forsyth wins extra inning thriller 4-3 to sweep Cape Fear
RALEIGH, N.C. – After pitching a complete game shutout the night before in a game one win, West Forsyth pitcher Brooke Perry came up big again for the Titans in game two of the 4A Softball Championship series, piloting the Titans to a 4-3 extra inning win and State Championship over Cape Fear.
Not only did Perry pitch the full eight innings, she led off the eighth inning with a double and Courtney Lamb came into run for Perry, crossing home on Anna Epling’s game-winning RBI double. Perry was named the series M.V.P. as she pitched 15 innings with a 2-0 record on the series, allowing three runs, only two earned, while only giving up 10 hits. She also struck out 10 batters in the two games with a single walk allowed.
After play in game two was suspended Saturday evening and pushed to Sunday afternoon, the Colts regrouped with their backs against the wall to start game two. Haley Cashwell led off with a single and Bri Bryant reached on an error. Two batters later Cape Fear pitcher Aubrey Reep lifted her team to the lead with a three-run homer putting the Colts in front for the first time in the series.
The lead was short-lived, however, as West Forsyth responded with a run in the bottom of the first as Cammy Pereira led off with a single and came around to score on an RBI-double by Taylor Ferrell. In the second, the Titans knotted the game at three when Hannah Runge led off with a single then advanced to second as Sydney Vaughn drew a walk. Runge scored on a throwing error by the pitcher and Vaughn tied the game on an RBI-single by Pereira.
Both pitchers settled in for the middle innings as after the second inning, each team only managed to advance a runner past second base one time, both teams getting a runner to third in the fifth. With the two pitchers dueling in the circle, the game went to extra innings.
Cape Fear got a one-out single from Reep, but couldn’t get anything started in the top of the eighth before Perry and Epling’s late-game heroics to capture West Forsyth’s first fast-pitch softball State Championship.
