Central Lee girls upset top-ranked Williamsburg

IOWA CITY – The Central Lee girls split games at a tournament in Iowa City on Friday, but the Lady Hawks showed they could make a run in the post-season.
The Hawks knocked off Class 3A’s top-seeded Williamsburg 4-3 in a wild finish in the team’s opener. The Hawks then fell to Class 5A, No 7 Bettendorf 8-2.
The Raiders committed five errors in the seven-inning affair while Central Lee played clean ball and scored a run in the top of the seventh to take a 4-2 lead.
Jaci Hawk opened the top of the sixth with a walk. Following a strikeout by the Raiders’ Kayla Spratt, Shanna Buford would hit a smash to third that was bobbled allowing Hawk to move to third after stealing second. Marie Young would ground out to short to score Hawk for the eventual game-winner and a 4-2 lead.
The Raiders would add a run to cut the lead to one in the bottom of the seventh with one out, but Everlee Harvey got a strikeout and then a liner to third baseman Kenna Sandoval secured the upset.
Williamsburg opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Shannon Finn worked a walk to start things for the Raiders. She would swipe second and come around to score on a bunt sacrifice. A ground out would end the threat.
In the top of the second, Young opened with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice. Abby Simmons then hit a grounder to short moving over Cox, who then scored on Harvey’s bunt down the third base line.
Central Lee would add a run in the fourth and fifth. Williamsburg would score in the bottom half of the fifth to make it 3-2, setting up the seventh inning theatrics.
Harvee had two RBIs to lead the Hawks going 1-2 at the plate. She also went the distance for the win, giving up three runs all earned on seven hits, while fanning three and walking two.
Sandoval, Buford, Bailey Schwartz, Harvey, and Carlee Pezley all had hits for the Hawks in the win.
The Williamsburg squad gave each of the Hawk players a gold ribbon in memory of Kodi Moeller, who died last week in a car accident.
In the 8-2 loss to Bettendorf in the second game of the day, Hawk led Central Lee going 2-4 with a run scored. Schwartz went 2-3 with a run scored. Buford and Pezley each had an RBI.
The Hawks trailed just 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth before Bettendorf broke things open in the top of the seventh with five runs.
Elaina Barlow started the game for the Hawks and went 2 2/3 before giving way to Harvey who got tagged with the runs in the seventh.
Central Lee improves to 20-8 on the year and won the SEI Superconference going a perfect 12-0 in loop play. They start post-season play with a Thursday game at Washington in Class 3A Region 8 quarterfinals with a 7 p.m. start time.