Helen Snavely drives in six to lead Brookstone into Elite 8
Brookstone's Helen Snavely set the tone with a two-run homer in the first inning and the Cougars went on to rout Landmark Christian, 14-2, in the third game of the best two-of-three series in the Class A private school state playoffs.
The teams split two games on Wednesday, with Brookstone winning the first 6-4 but losing the second 10-2.
Brookstone will play Calvary Day, who eliminated Strong Rock in the first round, on Oct. 29th at 10:30 a.m. at South Common in the Elite 8.
"The difference between today and the second game yesterday was you can see our girls got their uniforms dirty. That tells me they played hard and left it on the field," Brookstone softball coach Nathan McConnell said. "It was a great team win."
Brookstone lost the coin toss for home and opened the top of the first with Haley Johnson's single. She was sacrificed to second and came home when Snavely sent the second pitch she saw over the left center field fence for a 2-0 lead.
But Snavely was not done at the plate. In the third she knocked in another run and the Cougars jumped ahead 4-0.
Landmark Christian closed the gap to 4-2 on a RBI single by the War Eagles only senior, Annalisa Chavez, and a RBI hit by Emily Abernathy. For the series, Chavez had five hits and 5 RBI for the War Eagles.
The Cougars' Marty Laughbaum ended that threat when she threw Chavez out at the plate trying to score the third run on Abernathy's hit.
"I can't say enough about how our seniors came through today and not just Helen who had a monster game. Nae
McClain was sick and was only a hitter today and first base Emily Timmons also came up big for us," McConnell said. "Everyone made plays behind Helen."
The Cougars scored four runs with two outs in the fourth as Snavely knocked in two runs, McClain got an RBI and Timmons got her second RBI.
The Cougars sealed the win when Snavely collected her sixth RBI in the fifth when she was hit by a pitch and McClain got the biggest hit of the day, a grand slam over the center field fence. Pinch runner Kayla Davis stole home on a double steal for the final run.
Snavely retired the last six batters of the game and picked up her 18th win.
Thursday at Brookstone
Brookstone 202 46--14 13 0
Landmark 002 00--2 4 2
WP-Helen Snavely (18-1). LP- Madison Schmidtlkofer (16-7). LH- B- H. Snavely 3x3, 2B, HR, 6 RBI, Naeisha McClain 2x4, 2B, HR(GS), 5 RBI, K. Snavely 2x3, 2B, Timmons 2x4, 2RBI. Records-Brookstone (20-4), next game vs. Calvary Day 10:30 Oct. 29th, Landmark Christian (16-15), season ended.
This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Helen Snavely drives in six to lead Brookstone into Elite 8 ."