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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The Davie softball scores last week were rather shocking. Davie lost 6-4 in 11 innings to visiting East Forsyth. Reagan added insult to injury by whipping Davie 10-1.
It was a script-flipping stretch for the War Eagles, who beat both in the first meetings, winning 9-1 over East on March 7 and 7-3 over Reagan on March 18.
The grim week saw the War Eagles go from alone in second place in the CPC to third.
East 6, Davie 4 (11 innings)
The excruciatingly close loss on April 8 overshadowed Jadyn Davis’ three-run home run in the fourth inning. With Hanna Steinour and Brenna Altiers on base, Davis left the yard to give Davie a 4-3 lead. It was her third homer as two hits left her average at .534 – both team highs.
Davie had to rally because it dug a 3-0 hole in the top of the first inning.
“We shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with,” coach Nathan Handy said. “We had opportunities in the first inning to not let them score three. And that really hurt. But we’re learning and we’re working our way through it.”
Davie cut into the deficit in the bottom of the first when Carleigh Croom tripled and scored on a passed ball. The outcome was such a bummer because Davie was two outs from staying a game behind (in the loss column) frontrunner West Forsyth. East got a leadoff double in the seventh. One out later, a single tied the score at 4.
“It was definitely a game we should have and could have won,” Handy said. “We had too many mistakes and too many missed signs. It was a shot-ourselves-in-the-foot kind of game.”
In the eighth, East had two singles and reached on an error but failed to score. In the ninth, Davie committed its fifth error and gave up a double, but got out of the inning unscathed.
“When it was clutch, our defense came through,” Handy said. “We threw one out at third. We threw two out at home. One of the runners ran right through a stop sign.”
Davie had a chance to win it in the 10th. With two outs, Landry Parsons reached on one of East’s three errors. She advanced into scoring position when Steinour singled. The next batter, though, flew out to center.
Davie would get outhit 14-8 as it failed to score in the last seven innings.
“Eight hits over the course of 11 innings is not enough,” Handy said. “We were making great contact. We just kept hitting it right at people. Their center fielder had 8-10 outs. Their outfield played deep and we had five or six balls caught at the fence. Just a few more Wheaties in our cereal and we’re hitting home runs.”
Despite wasting prime opportunities in the eighth and ninth, East simply refused to die. The visitors put up two runs in the 11th on a single and two doubles. Davie’s Raegan Davis singled with one out in the home half of the 11th, but it couldn’t do anything else.
In the circle, Davie’s Riley Potts entered the game with no outs in the first after the first four East batters reached and hurled 11 innings. Although she gave up 12 hits, she walked three and struck out 14 in a 175-pitch effort. Sophomore Allie Cox went all 11 for East, throwing 181 pitches in a marathon game that saw 376 pitches and 97 batters.
J. Davis (2-6) and Steinour (2-3) led Davie with two hits each.
This one was difficult to stomach as East ended a four-game losing streak to the War Eagles.
“We’ve got to find a way to score more than four runs,” Handy said. “One swing scored three. It’s like somebody’s put a lid on the basket and we can’t seem to get it off. It’s disheartening for everybody, but no one wants to hit the ball more than the one in the box. They’ve got to keep pecking away. They’ve got to keep their confidence up and it will get there. It will come. I know they’re starting to get frustrated. But the biggest thing is for them to know they have the ability and it will eventually happen for them.”
Reagan 10, Davie 1
One night later, things were much more grim. Reagan sophomore pitcher Caycee Wilson made life as miserable as possible for Davie’s offense, and that wasn’t the only issue for the visiting War Eagles.
Besides getting held to three hits, they watched the Raiders pile up 14 and they committed four errors.
Wilson had a perfect game until Raelyn Lankford reached on an error with two outs in the fourth, and she had a no-hitter until Altiers singled with one out in the fifth. As if Wilson’s 12 Ks with no walks weren’t enough, she slammed a two-run homer to open the scoring in the first.
J. Davis, Lankford and Altiers all went 1 for 3.
Notes: Reagan improved to 15-3. … The top four in the CPC: West Forsyth 10-0, Reagan 8-2, Davie 6-3, East Forsyth 5-4. … Davie fell to 11-5 overall. … Davie’s three-game losing streak is the longest in five years.