SPORTS OBITUARIES |
Friday's Internet Edition, May 09, 2008.
|
| Titan hitter Austyn French makes solid contact in last week’s 1-0 win over Forbush. |
The Clemmons Courier
- “I was worried,” Kevin Baity admitted after being asked to assess West’s 7-5 come-from-behind win over Davie County in prep softball play last week. “This was a game we were in control of and all of the sudden we were letting it slip away.”
The situation Baity referred to earlier this week was the chaotic sixth-inning of last Friday night’s West Forsyth-Davie County game in Clemmons. As West’s head coach, Baity had watched in disbelief as a series of perfectly-placed War Eagle hits quickly transformed a one-run Titan lead into a two-run Davie advantage in the top of the sixth.
Down to the final six outs against a perennial Central Piedmont Conference rival, Baity’s anxiety soared when reliable leadoff hitter Jordan Fulton made an out to lead off West’s half of the sixth.
But in clutch fashion, the Titans fought back with two one-out walks and four consecutive hits by Erika Gross, Jessica Weaver, Julie Poindexter and Lindsay Steelman. The hits by Gross and Weaver enabled West to tie the score and the single to right-center field by Steelman helped the Titans regain the lead.
“It was certainly a nerveracking situation but I’m proud of how we fought back,” Baity said later. “But I would prefer that we hold on to the lead once we get it.”
|
| West forward Allan Jones soars over a Spartan defender. |
The Clemmons Courier - As he prepares his team for a first-round state tournament game at Greensboro Page, Mike Pennington can rest easy. He found out last week that his heart is in terrific shape.
Watching his boys varsity team compete in the Central Piedmont Conference high school basketball tournament, Pennington had to watch anxiously from the sideline as West’s semifinal and championship games were both decided by a single shot in the final five seconds of play.
The first went West’s way as a short baseline jumper by Allan Jones gave the Titans a 64-62 semifinal victory over the Reynolds Demons.
But the second, a 72-70 loss to Mount Tabor, was another story. A baseline jumper by Spartan guard Mike Grace dropped through the net with 1.3 seconds left to break a 70-70 tie. After received the ensuing inbounds pass, Titan guard Scott Barnes launched a long distance shot that, amazingly, almost found its mark. But the toss by Barnes came up just inches short, bouncing off the front of the rim and denying West its first CPC tournament title in five years.