Published: May 31, 2009 01:48 am      

4A SOFTBALL: FC back where it has been before

NORTH VERNON — Samantha McClure had just won her first sectional as a member of the Floyd Central softball team, but she had already learned one of the universal rules of championship-caliber play — act like you’ve been there before.

Thing is, she may have been there as a freshman, if not for a surprising loss to Jennings County in last season’s sectional semifinals. Save for that, the Highlanders aren’t in the business of losing in the postseason.

It’s a situation that was rectified on Saturday night, as McClure controlled the Jennings County offense from the mound and then had an RBI as part of a three-run third inning. That was plenty of scoring for the sophomore ace and the Highlanders went on to have their vengeance, beating the Panthers in the final of the Class 4A Jennings County Sectional.

“It feels awesome,” said McClure, who tossed seven scoreless innings and allowed just two hits with eight strikeouts to notch the victory. “We lost to Jennings County in the same situation, so that’s good to see. It opens up a lot of possibilities for us.”

Those possibilities will be on display when Floyd Central takes on Columbus North in the Floyd Central Regional next weekend after winning its third sectional crown in four season. But that’s for later this week.

“They need to enjoy winning a championship,” said Floyd coach Joe Witten. “We’ll go back to work on Monday. But Columbus North will be the best team we’ve seen in a long time.”

The same could be said for the defending champion Panthers, playing on their home field. Starting pitcher Amber Lozier — in place of ace McKensie Vandosol, who got Jennings to the final by shutting out New Albany — started strong. She allowed Floyd (21-6-1) just one baserunner over the first two innings.

But that changed when Megan McRae opened the third with an infield single and advanced to second on an error. That brought up Cherrod Gwaltney, who drove the first pitch she saw deep into left field for an RBI triple. Just like that, the Highlanders were on the board.

With Gwaltney on third and just one out, McClure lined out to centerfield, but hit it far enough to easily plate the run. The rally should have ended there, but Jordan Batliner drew a walk from Lozier to keep the inning going, and the Panthers paid when Jenna Allen crushed a ball to right center that scored courtesy runner Samantha Feather and was misplayed enough to allow her to end up on third.

“It helps when you get those runs behind you,” said McClure, “but you know they can score three runs pretty fast.”

Still, McClure made sure it wasn’t a real possibility. She gave up a walk and a single to Tori Magner in the third inning and a double to Caitlin Barlow in the fourth with two out, but the Panthers never advanced a runner to third. The Highlander ace even struck out Jennings’ (16-7) final two hitters, appropriately getting Lozier, who went down looking, for the last out.

Floyd tacked on another run in its last at-bat. Gwaltney reached first base on an error, then kept moving around the bases on ground outs by McClure and Paige Davis. That left Jordan Batliner – the Highlanders’ other starting pitch who started their semifinal game with Jeff, but moved to first base in favor of McClure – to smack an RBI single for the 4-0 advantage.

Besides McClure dominance, the rest of Floyd’s title run was punctuated by solid defense – the Highlanders did not commit an error in their two sectional wins – and solid strategy, deploying the outfielders deep to ensure that Jennings’ bevy of power hitters wouldn’t be able to deliver a momentum-turning extra base hit.

“We wanted them to get singles instead of that one big hit,” Witten said. “We figured with a pitcher like Samantha, it would be tough to get three straight singles.”

Witten had also beefed up the schedule this season and it showed, as did his team’s behavior after the title win. There was excitement and more than a few minutes of posing for pictures, but there was also a focus that Witten said has been his goal all along.

“We’ve tried to lay a foundation like that, playing in these intense situations,” he said. “They’re used to these sort of things, at least that’s what we’ve tried to do, and the fact that Jennings took a sectional away from us we thought, that was just some extra motivation.”

The win also meant three sectionals and three Hoosier Hills Conference titles for Floyd’s current crop of seniors. They’ll try to add a first regional title on Saturday.



FLOYD CENTRAL 003 000 1—4 5 0

JENNINGS CO 000 000 0—0 2 4

W – McClure. L – Lozier. 2B – Barlow (J). 3B – Gwaltney (F).

Records – Jennings County 16-7. Floyd Central 21-6-1.