This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

South Carroll Downs Century, Advances to Semifinals

The Knights and Cavaliers advanced in lacrosse, while Century and South Carroll earned a spot in the semifinals in baseball.

South Carroll edged Century 1-0 in the Class 2A West softball quarterfinal Wednesday, securing a spot in the regional semifinals.

The game included a 55-minute pitching duel, with South Carroll collecting five hits in the contest, three of which came from Summer Crosswhite. Century had one hit, a bunt by Amanda Pruitt. It was the third time the two teams have squared off.

 "All three games been a pitching duel," South Carroll coach Matt Cannistraci said. "Liberty is going to be a pitching duel again tomorrow. Two of the top girls in the county are in the region and (are) going to face each other tomorrow.’’

Find out what's happening in Eldersburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The semifinal is at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at , with the winner advancing to the regional final.

Kristen Griffith struck out eight Knights and gave up one hit and three walks in the victory. Century’s pitcher, Alyssa Dixon struck out four Cavaliers.

Find out what's happening in Eldersburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Since the second game this year, she has been unbelievable," Century coach Jay Seaborg said. "It’s the best I have ever seen her pitch.  If we had a team that hit a little bit this year, we could have won 14 or 15 games. We held teams to not many runs, we just couldn’t put any runs on the board.’’

South Carroll scored the game’s lone run in the bottom of the fourth. Stacie Maring led off with a single to left and then stole second base. Griffith laid down a sacrifice bunt  to move Maring to third.

Taylor Hoff followed with a looping fly ball to short left field, which Century shortstop Megan Beane made a dive to catch. Maring tagged up to score the winning run.

"With all the rain, it hurts us a little bit," Cannistraci said. "We didn’t get a chance to do a lot of hitting off live pitching. It took a while to get dialed in."

Century had the lead off batter on in the first two innings and sacrificed the runners to second base, but couldn’t get them in.

"We did what we were trying to do. We got the lead off runners on and the next batters did what we asked them to do," Seaborg said. "You can’t win games with one hit ... they didn’t score many runs, but one was enough."

Century ended the season at 10-9, while South Carroll improved to 15-4.

In other playoff action, Century advanced to the 2A West regional baseball final with a 10-0 win over Middletown in five innings. South Carroll baseball defeated Poolesville 9-6. The Cavaliers were down 6-0 after two innings, but made a strong comeback.

South Carroll play Williamsport at 4 p.m. Thursday, with the winner advancing to the regional baseball final against Century.

In boys lacrosse, South Carroll won the 2A-1A West region with a 11-4 victory over Oakdale.

The Cavaliers will play in the state semifinals Friday or Saturday at Bel Air High School. Century lost to Winters Mill 9-7 in 2A-3A West region action.

The Century girls move onto the state semifinals with a 20-5 win over Damascus for the 2A-3A West Region title. They will play at Annapolis High School on Friday or Saturday.

The Century girls made the state semifinals in volleyball in the fall, and basketball in the winter. They won the state championship in volleyball.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Eldersburg