Swansea softball snaps Gilbert’s winning streak, takes over region lead

Long-time Swansea softball coach Marty Mack understands the importance of what took place Tuesday night on the Tigers’ home field.

Gilbert has been the standard everyone else has been judged against the last several years. The Indians had not lost a region game in six years, with Swansea the victim several times.

That changed behind the pitching of Lauren Knight and a balanced offensive attack led by Hayden Moody that propelled Swansea into the driver’s seat for the Region 5-3A title with a 6-2 victory.

“Any time you get a chance to beat your quote, unquote, rival, it feels great,” Mack said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to beat them. (Our girls) have worked hard enough and deserve this opportunity. It feels good to win a game and be in position to accomplish your goals you set at the beginning of the year.”

Swansea (13-1-1, 7-1) still has work to do to claim the region title outright. The two teams will play at Gilbert on Friday. Another Tigers victory will give them the title outright, but an Indians victory puts Gilbert right back in the lead. Gilbert (14-3, 6-1) still has two games remaining with Strom Thurmond as well.

Both teams were idle last week during spring break, but it had been nearly three weeks since Gilbert had played. Their last game before Tuesday was a 16-6 win over Brookland-Cayce on March 31.

Gilbert coach Sarah Minchew declined to blame the layoff for the loss but didn’t think her team was as focused as they were in March.

“We expected to maybe not be as sharp as we were previously, but we talked all season to expect adversity in whatever form it comes, and we have to find a way to win anyways,” Minchew said. “We struggled to find that against Swansea.”

It started well enough for the Indians. Taylor Dreher blasted a two-out solo home run in the top of the first for a 1-0 lead.

Mack liked the fact his team responded with two in the bottom half of the first.

Knight and Aaliyah Felder each singled and were on second and third with two outs for Moody. She promptly delivered a two-run double down the left field line and a lead the Tigers would not relinquish.

“It’s always important to respond,” Mack said. “For us to come back in the bottom half of that inning and respond. Even if we hadn’t scored, getting a couple of hits and a couple of runners on base kind of got the momentum going.”

Moody delivered again with an RBI single in the fourth. The Tigers added another run on an Indians error, and it was 4-1.

Tara Dorgan singled and the ball was misplayed in the outfield, allowing Emily Melinauskas to score, but that was all they could muster against Knight.

The senior allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk to earn the win. Gilbert had scored at least five runs in every game this season.

Kailee Smith added an RBI single and Felder capped the scoring for Swansea with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

WP: Lauren Knight. LP Emily Braithwaite. Hitters: S: Knight 3-4, 2 runs scored; Hayden Moody 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Aaliyah Felder RBI; Caylee Busbee RBI; Kailee Smith RBI. G: Taylor Dreher HR; Tara Dorgan RBI. Miley Baty 2-3

This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 11:47 PM.