Baylor School softball coach Kelli Smith didn't want to see a carbon copy Tuesday of her team's game against Silverdale Baptist Academy on April 7.
Things started similarly at Silverdale in the teams' second matchup of the year. But this time Smith's Lady Red Raiders did enough to hold on and win 4-2.
A month ago the Lady Raiders got out to a lead, only to see the Lady Seahawks come storming back to win 7-4. Baylor pitcher Kayla Hughes was cruising along that da, but ran into trouble as the game got late
Hughes again was in control Tuesday, pitching a no-hitter through four innings. But she gave up her fourth walk of the game to Maddie Tankersley leading off the bottom of the fifth, and Savannah Turner followed with what turned out to be a well-placed infield hit.
The Lady Raiders were up 2-0 at the time, but Emily Harkleroad's double to left-center that inning tied the score.
Baylor retook the lead the next inning when Crosby Huckabay reached on an error, Kamrie Rich doubled and Hughes got a pop fly to drop in left-center for an RBI single. But when Hughes allowed a leadoff double to Elise Pearson in the bottom half, Smith made a pitching change and brought in Aaliyah Henderson.
"Kayla has been a little sore in her shoulder," Smith said. "She's not quite been a hundred percent. Even some of the outs were hard-hit balls. Any time you're facing a great lineup, you've got to make that call. Do I take out the senior? We have a lot of confidence in Aaliyah. We have a lot of confidence in our defense."
The Lady Raiders were up by two when Silverdale put the tying runs aboard in the seventh with Turner's leadoff single and Harkleroad's single with two outs. Henderson then induced a flyout and earned her first save.
"You can't start late against a really good team like them," SBA coach Tim Couch said.
Baylor started the game with Cheyenne Lindsey singling on the first pitch. She stole second, and Abby McNamara advanced her to third with a bunt single. A.J. Johnson followed with a run-scoring single.
Johnson hit a solo home run to deep left in her next at-bat and added a second homer with two out and none on in the seventh. It appeared she didn't take a full swing, yet the ball carried over the fence in center.
"She was responsible for three of our four RBIs," Smith said. "We talked to them in the dugout in the top of the seventh and said we need to score some runs to give our pitcher and our defense a little cushion. A.J. came through, and on a check swing."
Taylor Moran pitched the first four innings for Silverdale before being relieved by Harkleroad. Couch also had Shelby Duggard ready to throw, just in case.
"We warmed up three pitchers, thinking possibly we could give them three looks," Couch said. "We had planned to start Taylor. Then we had Shelby and Emily ready. We were going to go with Shelby if it happened to go to an extra inning. Taylor pitched good when she was in there."
Both Baylor (27-4), in Division II-AA, and Silverdale (32-3), in Class A, have high hopes of advancing to this year's Spring Fling.
"Especially with us not having a district tournament or a region tournament, we really want to play as many great teams and quality opponents as we can this week," Smith said. "We were really looking forward to this game. We have a lot of respect for Coach Couch and his girls. We definitely got what we bargained for. It was a great game, down to the last pitch."
Said Couch: "Come tournament time, playing them twice and some others is going to help us."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.