HAMPSTEAD — As the stage grows in magnitude, Isley Duggins continues to rise to the occasion.
The Southern Alamance senior pitcher produced a sterling complete-game performance, tossing a one-hitter with nine strikeouts to spearhead the Patriots to a 5-1 victory against top-seeded Topsail on Friday night in the third round of the NCHSAA Class 3-A state playoffs for softball.
“She’s been our leader all year and just showed a lot of tenacity,” Patriots coach Jon Russell said. “She’s worked so hard this year with trying to perfect each one of her pitches, and you’re seeing that pay off right now in the biggest moments. A lot of credit goes to our pitching coach, (Amber) Palmer. She’s done a fantastic job with Isley and our pitching staff.”
One of four teams now remaining in the Class 3-A state playoffs, the Mid-Piedmont Conference champion Patriots (14-3) are set to travel to third-seeded Hope Mills Gray’s Creek for the East Regional final on Tuesday. The Bears (12-2) defeated Mid-Piedmont Conference runner-up Southwestern Randolph 5-0 in a third-round game Friday night. In the first round, Gray’s Creek held off a late rally from visiting Western Alamance for a 3-2 victory.
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Duggins’ screwball proved to be a difficult puzzle for Topsail batters to solve Friday night.
“Especially because they have a lot of left-handed batters,” Duggins said, “so we threw a lot of screwballs, and it worked really well.”
Continuously on a mission to reach another gear, Duggins wasn’t fully satisfied, despite saying her effort ranked near the top of her career performances.
“It’s pretty high up there,” she said. “It was pretty exciting that I only gave up one hit. During the game, I wasn’t really thinking about that much because there were still people that got on base by either me hitting them or them getting walks or errors.”
Heather Vaughn went 3-for-4 at the plate with two triples and one RBI to lead the Patriots’ offense. Nikki Vaughn smashed a two-run home run and provided a pair of hits. Anna Byrd and Greta Hessenthaler tallied two hits apiece.
Topsail (14-3) produced its fewest hits and second-fewest runs in a game this season. The Pirates were shut out by Wilmington Hoggard in a 1-0 loss April 27. Hoggard is the only other team to defeat Topsail this season, doing so twice in Mideastern Conference play.
“They had some opportunities,” Russell said, “but we just out-executed them when it was crunch time. Hats off to our girls for doing that.”
Heather Vaughn tripled in the fifth inning to drive in Hessenthaler, who reached base with a double that hit the top of the fence, inches from clearing the outfield wall. With a throwing error to third base on her triple, Vaughn turned the final corner and reached home safely, giving the Patriots a 3-1 lead.
“It definitely gave us some breathing room,” Russell said of the two-run lead, “but the approach that we take is we try to win every inning. We never want to think we have anything won until the game's over.”
Two innings later, Nikki Vaughn belted a two-run shot over the left field fence to increase the Southern Alamance advantage to 5-1.
Addie Macdougall provided Topsail’s lone hit. The Pirates scored on an error.
Bri Gallagher’s sacrifice bunt in the first inning brought home a run to get the Southern Alamance scoring started. Following the game, Gallagher left her Patriots teammates with a short and sweet message amid the celebration.
“Guys, I have a really good feeling about this.”
David Kehrli is a sports reporter at the Burlington Times-News and USA Today Network. You can reach him at david.kehrli@thetimesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidKehrliTN. Subscribe to the Burlington Times-News here.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Isley Duggins tosses one-hitter as Southern Alamance advances to East Regional Final for softball
