Friday’s TSSAA Division II-AA East/Middle Region softball game between Baylor and GPS was an uncharacteristic one, considering at least one of the schools has played in the state final every year since 2003. But it was every bit as competitive as usual.
Host Baylor did not lead until the bottom of the sixth inning, and it had to hold off a seventh-inning challenge to defeat the Bruisers 5-3.
“It was kind of ugly,” said GPS coach Susan Crownover, whose team is 17-2 and 1-1 in the region. “They capitalized more on the ugly than we did.”
Said Baylor coach Kelli Smith, whose team is also 17-2 but 3-0 in the league: “After two innings there were like four errors. Very atypical of these two teams.”
Each team did have an error apiece in each of the first two innings, but the Lady Red Raiders didn’t need any help in their three-run sixth.