Glenwood softball notches two wins, advances to AISA semis

Glenwood assistant coach Debbie Ball said it best—“This is more like weather in October when Georgia has their state softball championships, not here in Alabama in May.”

Despite temperatures in the 50s for the entire day, the Lady Gators came through with two straight wins and advanced to the semifinals of the AISA class AAA state championships.

“What you want is to win and advance and stay out of the loser’s bracket,” Glenwood head coach Dusty Perdue said. “We won despite not playing our best (in the first game) and getting a lights-out performance with McKenna (Gillespie) in the second game.

The first contest set Glenwood against Hooper Academy. The Lady Gators scored four in the first and held on for a 5-2 victory.

“We simply did not play well and did not hit the ball well and were not patient at the plate,” Perdue said. “But “G” (Ashley Gallant) did a good job on the mound for us, and with the exception of a couple of pitches, could have pitched a shutout.”

In that first inning of the first game, Glenwood’s first four batters reached base and were ahead 2-0 before an out was recorded. All four of those players eventually scored. Morgan Grant’s RBI double in the 6th gave the Lady Gators’ their fifth and final run.

Hooper’s only runs came on a two-run homer by Chloe Seithalil in the third to narrow the gap to 4-2. The Lady Colts, however, only had three base runners in the other six innings.

The second game for Glenwood featured a familiar opponent in Lee-Scott, which won its first round game.

The task was not too much for Gillespie, who held held Lee-Scott to one hit in a 10-0, five-inning mercy-rule victory. Gillespie struck out five and walked two along the way to the victory.

“We played much better and came out ready to play and be more patient at the plate,” Perdue said. "Kirsten (Reynolds) hit a two-run shot in the third, then Hope (Gullatt) followed with a back-to-back homer. You could see we had the momentum the rest of the way.”

Reynolds went 2-for-2 with 3 RBIs. Gillespie, meanwhile had three hits and contributed an RBI as well. Gillespie scored the 10th run with one out in the fifth on Carlena Hampton’s single that ended the ball game.

“We will play the winner of Northside Methodist or Edgewood Saturday at 10:00 CST for a spot in the championship game,” Perdue said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2017 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Glenwood softball notches two wins, advances to AISA semis."