Lady Scots softball gets past Western Alamance, advances to third round of state playoffs

LAURINBURG —The Lady Scots softball team advanced to the third round of the 3A NCHSAA state playoffs with a 5-0 victory over the Western Alamance Warriors on Thursday night at Scotland High School. Scotland improves to 25-1 overall on the season with their 24th consecutive victory while Western Alamance ends their season at 12-11 with the loss. Star pitcher Avery Stutts also became Scotland’s all time strikeout leader during the game as she had 13 in the victory.

While Stutts was excited to set her place in Scotland’s record books, she was more focused on what the win meant for the team knowing that the Scots fell in the second round of the playoffs a season ago while also seeing their season end at the hands of the Warriors in both 2022 and 2023. While the win was of course cause for celebration, Stutts knows that the Scots still have more they want to accomplish in the coming weeks.

“We came in with the mindset that they have beaten us two of the past three years and we weren’t going to let that happen again, no one’s going to bow down to us and we came in with everything we had and it worked out for us in the end,” Stutts said. “It feels really good, I’m going to stay humble though, I don’t want to get ahead of myself I’m just going to keep doing what I do and hopefully it still works out.”

The game started off as a defensive struggle with both teams getting base runners but failing to bring any runs across. The Warriors had a chance to score right off the bat as Bayleigh Burris was hit by a pitch, managed to take second on a passed ball and steal third but never reached home. A one-out double from Dawson Blue, who would steal third, gave the Scots an early opportunity to grab the lead but again no runs were scored.

The second inning was very similar to the first, as Western Alamance had another runner in scoring position thanks to a one-out double from Addison Beal but she would be stranded there as the game remained scoreless. Scotland got a leadoff hit in the home half of the frame on a single from Emily Sampson but couldn’t bring any runs across.

After the Warriors went down in order in their half of the third, the Scots would finally get on the board in the bottom of the inning on a leadoff solo homer from Addison Lewis. Scotland added two more hits in the inning on one-out singles from Blue and Stutts but couldn’t add onto their lead.

Even as the Scots struggled early to push runs across, Head Coach Adam Romaine thought the Scots were doing a good job getting contact on the ball. Lewis’ home run was a big boost for the Scots and was something that Romaine felt put the Warriors on their heels for the rest of the night.

“I felt like we saw the pitching well even earlier in our first at bat through, we just hit some hard balls right to girls, overall we hit the ball well and did enough to win,” Romaine said. “When your number nine comes up and leads an inning off with a solo home run, for the other team you’re thinking ‘wow that was their nine and gosh we got to get right back to the top.’”

Western Alamance again went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth inning. The Scots managed to get another runner into scoring position in their half of the inning, as Kinsey Hamilton got to first safely on a fielder’s choice and advanced to second on a ground ball from Addison Ratley that resulted in an error but never advanced any further as the game remained 1-0.

After a leadoff walk to Beal in Western Alamance’s half of the fifth, they would quickly have their next three batters retired. Scotland then added onto their lead in a big way in the bottom of the frame, starting with a leadoff triple from Blue and an RBI single from Stutts that doubled the Scots’ advantage to 2-0. A walk to Ramsey Hale and a three-run home run from Sampson blew the game open and made it 5-0 before an out was recorded in the inning.

The rest of the game was rather uneventful as a walk to Camryn Rodrigues in the top of the sixth and a leadoff double from Lewis in the bottom of the sixth were the only other base runners. The Warriors went down in order in their last chance during the top of the seventh.

Sampson’s home run gave her the team lead in RBIs with three while she went 2-3 at the plate with a run scored. Stutts and Lewis added two hits and an RBI apiece. Blue went 3-4 with a run scored.

Scotland will host the winner of the matchup between No. 7 Cape Fear and No. 23 Southern Alamance in the third round on Tuesday night. The Colts and Patriots will meet in Fayetteville on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. The Scots have not faced either team this season.

Whether Scotland ends up facing Cape Fear or Southern Alamance, Romaine knows that the Scots will have their work cut out for them. He described both teams as ones that are good at getting the ball in play and having capable pitchers, which should make for another tough test on both offense and defense Tuesday night.

“They’re both put the ball in play well teams,” Romaine said. “These teams have seen good pitching in their conference and hit the ball well. Either one once they win we’re going to have to go to the board and scratch up some ways to know how to defensively play against both these teams and both of them have pretty good pitchers.”