Mooresville softball sweeps Lake Norman, advances to title game

They say beating a team three times in one season is difficult.  In the early stages of Wednesday night’s round 2 matchup between Mooresville and Lake Norman, it looked like this would be the case for the Blue Devils.

Lake Norman jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a ground ball up the middle just out of reach of the Mooresville infielders.  However, that lead would not last long for Mooresville answered fast with a run of its own in the bottom half of the third.  Macy Crum singled to right field then proceeded to steal both 2^nd and 3^rd base.  Avrelle Harrell came up big again with a sacrifice fly scoring Crum to tie the game 1-1.

Lake Norman fought back again in the top of the 4^th inning playing some small ball.   They moved runners over to second and third while scoring on a ground ball out advancing the runners.  The threat was quickly squashed on a ground out to Brooke Piper who made a great play ending the inning.  Lake Norman up 2-1.

Campbell Schaen led things off in the pitcher’s circle for Blue Devils. The southpaw lasted seven innings, allowing only five hits and two runs for the Lake Norman Wildcats.  Schaen spoke to Mooresville Sports after the game, and you can hear the interview below.  (photo shown)

The Blue Devils pulled away for good with four runs in the fourth inning.  Maddie Colby started off the inning with another single to the outfield.  Colby has been extremely hot with the bat and on defense all season.  These past few weeks have been even better.  We will follow up more on this in a future article.  Next on deck was Emily Murphy who doubled on a 1-2 count, scoring Colby from first.  This was a huge hit for Murphy which excited the Blue Devil crowd and began the big inning.

The very next play caused trouble for Lake Norman when Cadence Lane (KAY DENSE) hit a sharp ball to the left side of the infield, Murphy, on second, hesitated for a moment and headed for third on the throw to get Lane out.  Lake Norman made the putout but on a close play at third, the ball went into the outfield, easily scoring the hustling Murphy.

Bentli Meadows then walked on a great at-bat working the count to reach first.  Lilly Rumrill was brought in to pinch run for Meadows while Emily Dudley doubled on the first pitch of the at-bat, scoring Rumrill from first.  Dudley hit the ball so hard that Rumrill didn’t even hesitate and in the blink of an eye scored, putting the Devils up 4-2.  We had the pleasure of speaking to Miss Dudley below in our post-game interviews. (photo shown)

With Dudley on second next up was Macy Crum. On a fastball, Crum saw dead red and hit a shot out to left field which scored Dudley now making the game 5-2 Mooresville.  Miss Crum gave the crowd the thumbs up knowing it was a decisive blow to the Lake Norman Wildcats.

At the top of the sixth, Lake Norman was threatening with runners on first and second, a hard hit was grabbed by a diving Maddie Colby at second base (photo shown) who threw to first getting the runner.  This was certainly a robbed base hit that could have scored 1 or more Wildcats.  It was the defensive play of the night.  Not a single error was committed by the Blue Devils all game which helped assure victory.

In the bottom of the sixth, Emily Dudley came up big again with an infield hit to third base.  The Blue Devils put Lilly Rumrill in as a courtesy runner and she stole second on the first pitch (photo shown).  The throw was not in time leaving Rumrill in scoring position with Avrelle Harrell coming to bat.  Harrell hit a sharp ball into center field easily scoring the speedy Rumrill from second making the score 6-2 Mooresville.

Blue Devils tallied ten hits on the day.  Crum, Dudley, and Maddie Colby all had multiple hits for Blue Devils.  Colby, Dudley, and Crum each managed two hits to lead Blue Devils. 

Kendall Robinson led Lake Norman in batting going 2-for-3 at the plate followed by Sophia Barone with a hit and RBI, and 2 others with hits.

The Mooresville Blue Devils will face Hickory Ridge Friday night as the visitors, at Mooresville High School for the conference tournament championship.  The game is scheduled for a 6:30 PM start.