MOCKSVILLE — The only thing harder than the ball Dawn Singleton hit was her luck.
Davie County’s Singleton came to the plate with teammate Stacey Handy at third base with none out in the bottom of the seventh and the War Eagles trailing Alexander Central by a single run in the quarterfinals of the state 4A softball playoffs.
Singleton mashed a delivery from Central pitcher Jamie Mecimore. sending a screamer toward right. Instead of wide open spaces, however, the ball nestled in the glove of right fielder Heather Davis, who was playing Singleton at the edge of the infield dirt.
“It was a shot,” said Davie coach Dave Markland. “Ten feet to either side, it’s a double. Maybe a triple. Who knows?”
Instead it was an out. And it’s the out they’ll remember the longest from Davie’s heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the Cougars (24-5) on Saturday night.
Davie’s dream season ended at 20-2 with a nightmarish rehash of last season’s loss to Central in the same round and at the same place. The only difference was that last year there was lightning, thunder and rain as Davie left the bases loaded twice in an extra-inning defeat. This time, skies stayed clear and roughly 500 fans stayed dry.
“But there was plenty of lightning on that field, wasn’t there?” boomed bombastic Central coach Monte Sherrill. “It’s so eerie how it works out some time. It was like a reenactment of last year’s game.”
Sherrill’s team, which is headed to the Final Four for the seventh time in 11 years, scratched out the game’s only run in the fourth off Davie pitcher Shannon Handy when it successfully got down two bunts — one a single, one a sacrifice — then got a single to right-center by Davis on a two-out off-speed pitch.
Handy made few mistakes, but the one Davis slapped was enough to hand the Catawba signee her first setback of the year. Handy went15-1 as a senior and posted a 40-12 mark over the course of her career. Handy and fellow four-year player, third baseman Ashlie Sanders, were part of 70 War Eagle wins for three different head coaches. But for the third time in those four seasons, they were denied a trip to Raleigh and the Final Four with a loss in the quarterfinals.
“It’s tough,” said Handy, “because I won’t get another chance. But I thought we played an awesome game. We put all our hearts in it and that’s all you can do.”
Handy hung it up with one of the best games of her life, fanning a dozen of the hard-hitting Cougars. Coming in, Central had piled up 15 runs in two playoff games.
Davie had a few chances.
Kim Hilton, who also made a great running catch, singled in the fourth to break up Mecimore’s no-hitter, but was stranded. Shannon Handy walked in the fifth, but was thrown out trying to go first to third on a bunt.
In the sixth, Amber Carter singled and moved to second on Hilton’s bunt. It appeared that Davie’s Sanders (.476) would get a shot to tie the game with a hit, but Sherrill was well aware that Sanders is Davie’s most dangerous batter.
“Sanders was not gonna beat me,” he said. “She’s tough as nails.”
So all Sanders saw were four straight balls that sailed well outside.
“I wanted so bad to hit right there,” said Sanders. “But it wasn’t the first time I’ve been walked and it won’t be the last.”
After the pass to Sanders, Layne Grout struck out to end the threat.
After Singleton’s ill-fated liner in the seventh, Stacey Handy tried to score on Shannon Handy’s bouncer to second. But Jen Antal came up throwing and catcher Monica Taylor’s shin guards blocked the younger Handy off the plate.
“The runner got there before the ball, but she (Taylor) did a great job blocking the plate,” said Markland.
Brandi Cornatzer then looped a foul fly that was caught by first baseman Leah Krohn to end the game.
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