Although they were making an 11th consecutive trip to the fast pitch state tournament last week, the Silo Lady Rebels faced a rugged first round draw in district rival Kingston.
After splitting a pair of regular season matchups that gave the Lady Redskins the district title and ultimately higher state tournament the rubber match proved to be a heavyweight slugfest.
Kingston, however, grabbed an early advantage taking advantage of Silo miscues and held off a late Lady Rebel charge for a 7-4 triumph to advance to the Class 3A state semifinals. The contest was filled with dramatic moments and tension each way as both teams struggled with a tight strike zone that resulted in a combined 17 walks. Kingston’s sensational speed proved to be decisive though as the Lady Redskins cashed in several bunt and infield hits for a 10-3 edge in that category.
Two of Silo’s three hits went for extra bases, the biggest coming on a Neely House three-run double in the fourth inning. Parri Garrett contributed a single in that frame and Avery Mc-Carty’s RBI groundout accounted for the other run as the Lady Rebels scored all of their runs in the stanza.
Kingston went in front with an unearned tally in the first and added another single run in the second before starting to open it up with a three-run fourth inning outburst. Silo cut the margin to 5-4 in the fourth but the Lady Redskins capitalized on a pair of bases loaded walks to force in two more runs in the fifth stanza.
Kostina Tubby posted a double for Silo’s other hit in the contest with Brylee Smothers taking the tough-luck pitching loss, yielding one earned run on one hit, striking out two and walking a pair in three and one-third frames.
The Lady Rebels closed with a 30-7-1 record.