Faith Guy’s bunt gives Lady Bulldogs win in Game 1 of 2nd round
Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, April 24, 2018
- Enterprise’s Faith Guy forces out the Enterprise-Lincoln runner at second base as she completes the double play Tuesday night.
ENTERPRISE — Faith Guy entered the batter’s box in the bottom of the eighth inning with Sarah Brannan on second base and the Lady Bulldogs seeking any momentum they could grab. Guy provided that momentum with a well-placed bunt that sent Brannan toward third.
As Enterprise-Lincoln pitcher Carlee Nations rifled the softball to first base to throw out Guy, her throw skipped in front of the bag before rolling toward the first-base dugout. Brannan seized the opportunity and made her way to home plate for the winning run.
Trending
Guy’s walk-off bunt lifted Enterprise-Clarke to a 1-0 victory over Enterprise-Lincoln in Game 1 of its second-round playoff series. Enterprise-Clarke (17-6) picked up its fifth consecutive shutout. The streak spans 33 innings.
“Coach gave me the sign,” Guy said of her walk-off hit. “I knew what I had to do. We practice it every day. You have to get bunts down to win ball games. There are big plays, and you have to make them… I just went out there and did my job. My job wasn’t to score (Brannan), it was to move her to third, but it fell in our way so we’re grateful for it.”
Runners were placed on second base at the start of the eighth inning in accordance with international tiebreaker rules. After Lady Bulldogs starting pitcher Emma Herrington induced three Enterprise-Lincoln outs in the top of the eighth, Brannan made her way to second base in the bottom of the frame poised to jump on the opportunity to score the winning run.
“I had full confidence in her to get the bunt down,” Brannan said of Guy. “Our original plan was to bunt me over to third, and then Shawanda (Gray) was going to squeeze me in. But when she laid that bunt down, I knew it was a perfect bunt because they were either going to throw her out and get me to third, or she was going to do exactly what happened. She rushed the pitcher and the pitcher overthrew it, so she did her job. I was proud of her.”
Both teams combined for just nine hits, as Enterprise-Clarke finished with five and Enterprise-Lincoln ended with four. Herrington struck out four to earn the win.
Talena Satcher led the Lady Bulldogs with two hits on three plate appearances, while Guy and Sydney Goodman finished with one hit apiece.
Trending
Enterprise-Lincoln’s Carly Polk went 2-for-4, and Nations struck out three and walked none.
“That’s a good team right there — a really good team,” Enterprise-Clarke coach Davey Dewitt said. “That pitcher, she’s legit. She’s really, really good. She hits spots well, she runs it up there, she has good velocity. They’re a well-coached and well-disciplined team.”
Enterprise-Clarke travels to Enterprise-Lincoln Thursday for Games 2 and 3.
“We have a lot of fight in us,” Guy said. “We have a huge goal this year — we know where we want to be. In the past few years, we haven’t met our goal, and this year we’re very hungry to get to where we want to be… We know Thursday we’re going to have to fight just as hard as tonight. This is a very good team we had to play against, so we knew we had to play our best game against them.”