North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By John Smithson
The North Myrtle Beach Lady Chiefs softball team lost two games last week to the St. James Lady Sharks to complete a 0-3 run against the 6AAAAA region’s top team. The Sharks won the first game of the series 5-2 on April 13th at St. James.
The Chiefs faced a Sharks team that was 18-0 going into last week’s final two games of the region series. The first game last Monday was a home game at St. James, and the Sharks scored at least one run in five of their six innings and won 9-1.
Sharks pitcher Raegan Tibbitts struck out the first two Chiefs hitters before the Chiefs top hitter Sadie Olson lined a pitch over the left field fence for a 1-0 Chiefs lead.
Sierra Bendik was on the mound for the Chiefs in the bottom of the first inning and two errors and a double scored two runs for the Sharks and gave them a 2-1 lead.
St. James added three runs in the bottom of the second inning. A Chiefs error, sacrifice, fielder’s choice ground out, walk and a two-run homer increased the Sharks lead to 5-1. Two singles and a Chiefs error in the bottom of the third made the score 7-1.
The Chiefs loaded the bases in the top of the fourth on Lilly Carney and Hadley Leonhardt singles and walk to Izzy Bruno, but Tibbitts struck out Bendik and Faithlyn Lewis to end the Chiefs threat.
The Sharks added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to complete their scoring and 9-1 win. Bendik had two singles in the game for the Chiefs and pitched all six innings, gave up nine hits and three earned runs. Five Chiefs errors hurt the NMB effort. Tibbitts gave up five hits, the Olson homer and struck out 13 Chiefs batters.
The Chiefs final meeting of the year with the Sharks was last Wednesday at The Hank. The Sharks ace Tibbitts was back on the mound and dominant as usual, allowing only three Chiefs hits while striking out 15 batters.
Isabella Foster started the game for the Chiefs and gave up a single, hit a batter and another single scored one run, with a sacrifice fly bringing in the second Sharks run for a 2-0 lead.
The Sharks had a runner on second in the top of the third on a double, but Tibbitts lined out to Lewis, and she nailed the runner trying to advance to third.
The Sharks had two singles and runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the fourth, but the Chiefs defense and pitching didn’t allow a run to score.
The Sharks had four straight singles in the top of the fifth but only scored one run. Olson caught a pop out and Bendik caught a fly out to end the inning with the Sharks holding a 3-0 lead.
The Sharks scored their last two runs in the game off of Capri Laughlin in the top of the seventh. Two singles and a ground out moved runners to second and third. A double scored the runners, but Mairead Olson threw out the hitter trying to stretch her hit to third to end the top of the seventh.
The Chiefs got a single to center by Sadie Olson to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but Tibbitts closed out the game with two pop outs and a strikeout for the 5-0 victory and swept the Chiefs.
Next up for the Chiefs is the three-game series with Myrtle Beach. Game one was Monday at The Hank. Game two was Wednesday at Myrtle Beach. Tonight the Aynor Lady Blue Jackets visit for a non-region game. The Seahawks come back to North Myrtle Beach next Monday for the third game of the region series. It will be senior night for the Lady Chiefs.
