After dominating two foes on the way to the Class 4A slow pitch state finals, there was little surprise that Silo ran into regular title game nemesis Dale.
Meeting in an athletic championship game for the 19th time in the last 20 years, the two schools played possibly the most epic clash of the bunch with Dale prevailing 18-17 in a thriller that broke a 9-9 deadlock in title matchups with the Rebels.
In Morgen Hollingshed’s first spring at the helm, Silo cruised to a 14-4 run rule win over Hartshorne and followed up with a 16-2 semifinal thumping of Latta. They ended the year with a 34-8 record.
Silo scored in all but one inning of the first round victory against Hartshorne as they pounded out 15 hits with nearly half of those going for extra bases.
Neely House had three of the hits, including one of four Lady Rebel home runs, while also driving in three. Paetyn Garrett also had a home run and knocked in three with Maddix Sander chipping in a double, homer and two RBI. Jayci Webb also pitched in a pair of hits that included a home run as Kostina Tubby delivered two doubles as well.
The Lady Rebel offense continued sizzling facing Latta as they held a 3-2 lead through one inning before exploding for 13 unanswered runs en route to a second straight run rule verdict.
An eight-run fifth inning in which Silo batted all the way through the lineup proved to be too much. Webb blasted a tworun homer, Connie Tubby added a three-run bomb and Sander chipped in a triple that drove in a pair.
Sander wrapped up with three hits and knocked in three runs with Garrett also notching three hits, including a double and homer, with two batted in. Connie Tubby, Kostina Tubby, Paislee Johnson and Kamrey Hendricks posted two hits apiece.
The title game thriller turned into a home run derby most of the way as Silo belted a whopping 11 roundtrippers to six for Dale but the Lady Pirates had more on base for most of their bombs.
Silo led 7-5 following a six-run second inning but was playing catch up the rest of the way after yielding seven tallies in the top of the third stanza.
The Lady Rebels narrowed the gap to 13-11 through four frames and still trailed 17-15 entering the final inning. Dale notched one in the top of the inning and the Lady Rebels countered with solo homers by Connie Tubby and Neely House. They got the tying run aboard with two outs but was left stranded.
House finished with five hits in the game, including four solo home runs. Connie Tubby blasted a pair of homers and knocked in five. Garrett, Kostina Tubby and Webb all had three hits and two RBI as Sander and Abi Cordell each ended with two hits.
