Railroaders power past Panthers

GREENVILLE - Bradford pitcher Skipp Miller has built a reputation as a power pitcher this season.

The offense for the Railroaders, however, has often times lacked power.

That wasn't the case on Saturday, though.

Miller, a freshman, shut down a powerful Parkway offense that had been pulverizing opposing pitchers this postseason, and Bailey Wysong hit a grand slam on a day when the Railroaders produced 14 hits in a 12-1, six-inning victory in the Division IV regional finals at Stebbins Field.

"I just told the girls that it's not too often that a head coach can underestimate his own team," Bradford coach Shon Schaffer said. "We saw the ball well the entire game and were hitting the ball amazing. I'm so happy for the girls. We've won games 2-0, 2-1, you know, the balk of our schedule, we'd eek out games 2-1. This type of offensive day wasn't thought of."

The 10th-ranked Railroaders, now 21-3, advance to state for the first time in program history.

The fourth-ranked Panthers finish the season at 21-5.

"Generally speaking, they haven't hit that well and scored a lot of runs," Parkway coach Mark Esselstein said. "But with Skipp on the mound, they only have to score a couple runs a game to win. The key for us was to try to get ahead early to put the pressure on them. I know they have four freshman starting for them, so if we could put them in a hole early, I was thinking maybe nerves would get to them and give our kids confidence that we've scored on her. But that didn't happen."

Bradford had scoring chances railroaded in the first two innings as Haley Hawk recorded the final outs in each frame with runners on second.

But the Railroaders cashed in after leadoff hitter Chelsea Gill singled to start the inning. Gill bolted around the bases and scored when Miller hit a single to the right-center gap. Bailey Keener later made it 2-0 with an RBI double.

Miller had the Panther offense sputtering over the first three innings, retiring the first nine of 10 hitters she faced.

In the fourth, the Railroaders loaded the bases with two outs after Gill reached on a fielder's choice, a single by Canan and an intentional walk to Miller, Bradford's best hitter. Wysong followed with a grand slam to dead left to make it 6-0.

"(Walking Miller) was the right play, but then the girl behind her made us pay," Esselstein said. "But the key to the game was two-out hitting. They just drove in a ton of runs and we couldn't get that third out to limit the damage."

Hawk, who had been intentionally walked five times by Newton in the regional semifinal, gave Parkway its first hit and lone run with a towering shot to right center in the fourth.

"(Intentional walks) to Hawk kind of benefitted us," Schaffer said. "My thought was, she hasn't seen live pitching in a couple games, so we just went right after her. She caught us on her second at-bat. I don't know if it was misread at the plate or if Skipp just missed a spot, but she threw a ball over the right side of the plate and she took it over right field. Hats off to her. She got a hold of that one."

Bradford fired back with a pair of two-out, run-scoring hits in the fifth. Gill's single scored one and Canan's single added two more to extend the lead to 9-1.

After the Panthers committed two errors and allowed a bunt single in the top of the fifth, Bradford's Maggie Manuel delivered the knockout blow with a three-run double.

Elisa Martinez, Gill, Canan, Miller and Wysong all had two hits. Miller finished with five strikeouts and two walks.

Hawk's fourth-inning homer was the 41st of her career. Bailey Bates had the only other hit for Parkway, which had outscored postseason opponents 44-8 before having its most inefficient offensive day of the season on Saturday.

"There's only eight teams in D-IV playing today and we're one of them," Esselstein said. "That's a great accomplishment. They gave me everything they had and prepared well. Sometimes it just doesn't work out."