With the end of basketball season, the Greenwood High School girls’ softball team is now fully staffed and ready to make another run at reclaiming the 6A state title won by the Lady Bulldogs in 2015, the same title they lost to Sheridan in last spring’s championship game.
The GHS girls reached the finals of the 6A state basketball tournament, losing to Jonesboro on March 10th, and several athletes from that team also double as softball players. They finally joined Head Coach Ronnie Sockey and the Lady Bulldogs about a week into the season.
Ally Sockey, daughter of the head coach, along with fellow freshman Haven Clements, sophomores Harley Terry and Angela Price, and senior pitcher Kaila Cartwright were among some of the two-sport athletes who have now made the switch from round ball to the diamond.
The Lady Bulldogs are currently 5-3 on the season, having lost three of their last four games to Bentonville West, Sheridan, and Vilonia. In between, they defeated Lincoln, after opening the season with four consecutive wins.
They will host Siloam Springs on Thursday in a conference game that will be live streamed on the Greenwood Dog Pound website starting at 5 p.m. The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Clarksville on Friday for another league game and will host Fayetteville next Tuesday in non-conference play.
Van Buren
Greenwood opened its season, absent the basketball players, on March 8th against the Lady Pointers of Van Buren, a five-inning affair. Tied at 3-3, the Lady Bulldogs got a walk-off victory on Emma McCorkle’s game-winning single in the bottom of the fifth.
Trailing 3-0 after three frames, Greenwood scored three times in the fourth to tie the score, before winning it in the fifth. The GHS girls also out-hit Van Buren, nine to five. Both teams made three errors.
Kimmie Colyer was the winning pitcher for Greenwood, throwing the final two innings, giving up just one hit, no walks, and fanning one. Abbi Clem started the game and went three innings, giving up just one earned run.
McCorkle and third baseman Miriah Hamilton had two hits each, with McCorkle driving in two runs, including the winner. Hamilton and Paxtyn Hayes both had an RBI.
Waldron
Four days later, two days after the basketball finals, with re-enforcements on the field and on the bench, the GHS girls defeated the Lady Bulldogs of Waldron, 13-4. An 11-run outburst in the bottom of the first inning put the game away early.
Paxtyn Hayes walked to start the rally, then stole second base. What followed was a barrage of hits including back-to-back doubles by Ericka Calderon and Mariah Hamilton, a single by Josie Chapple, a double by Rheding Wagoner, a single by Lexi Castillow, a couple more walks, and three more consecutive doubles by Hayes, Calderon, and Hamilton.
Five Lady Bulldogs reached double digits in hits, including three for Ericka Calderon and two each for Josie Chappel, Paxtyn Hayes, Rheding Wagoner, and Mariah Hamilton.
Abbi Clem and Kimmie Colyer split the pitching duties, throwing two innings each. Colyer started the game and gave up all four Waldron hits and the only run in the first inning, which was unearned.
For Greenwood, getting those extra players back meant a lot, according to senior Ericka Calderon. “I wanted the season to [start], because it’s softball, of course. But at the same time, it’s my last year, and so it’s kind of just mixed feelings,” said Calderon. “The girls that came back from basketball bring a lot of different energy on the field, and just to finally have our whole team together, it feels really good.”
As for Coach Sockey, he said, “One through nine [in the lineup] can all swing the bats pretty good, and we’ve got about 15 [girls] that can go, so it was good to see them all out. Now we’ve got to get our pitching straightened out and get Kaila [Cartwright] back off the injury. We had a couple of ankle injuries coming out of basketball, but getting them back [will] give us a lot more athletes out and ready to go.”
Farmington
On March 13th the Lady Bulldogs traveled to Northwest Arkansas to face the Lady Cardinals of Farmington. It was a low-scoring affair that went seven innings, with Greenwood winning 4-2. It was also the conference opener for Greenwood.
If Kaila Cartwright had any lingering issues with her ankle, it was hard to tell in her first pitching effort of the season. She hurled seven innings, allowing seven hits, two walks, and fanned five in picking up the complete game victory. Only one of the two runs scored against her in the fourth inning were earned.
Offensively, Greenwood scored once in the second, twice in the fourth, and again in the sixth. Half a dozen Lady Bulldogs had one hit each, but Makynlee Young made the most of her at bats, driving in three of Greenwood’s four runs.
Alma
The Greenwood girls needed a big seventh-inning rally to keep their perfect season alive on March 15th at Alma, followed by an even bigger eighth inning for the 14-10 win.
Greenwood rallied from a 9-5 deficit in the top of the seventh to force extra innings, then scored five runs in the top of the eighth to outlast the Airedalettes in 6A/5A-West action. Alma trailed 5-1 before scoring four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.
Greenwood’s seventh inning rally was keyed by a two-run double off the bat of Mariah Hamilton. The Lady Bulldogs then tied it up on a pair of two-out RBI singles by Angela Price and Makynlee Young.
In the eighth inning, Greenwood took a one-run lead on an RBI triple by Ericka Calderon. The Lady Bulldogs then added four more runs, capped by a bases-loaded triple from Price.
At the plate, Ally Sockey went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple, two RBIs, and three runs scored. Price was 3-of-4 with five RBIs and two runs scored, and Calderon went 3-for-5 with an RBI and three runs scored. Kimmie Colyer was the winning pitcher in relief, going 2.2 innings, allowing no runs on one hit.
Vilonia
On March 16th the season took its first serious turn in the wrong direction at the Farmington-Fayetteville tournament, when the Lady Eagles of Vilonia, a 5A school, defeated the Lady Bulldogs 13-5. The game turned in the bottom of the third inning when Vilonia plated 10 runs.
Both squads scored in the first, with Vilonia taking advantage of a Greenwood error to plate three runs for a 3-2 lead. The Lady Bulldogs tied the game in the second, but didn’t score again until Vilonia had built a 13-3 advantage.
The game ended early after 3½ innings. Kimmie Colyer took the loss for Greenwood, allowing 11 earned runs on 10 hits and five walks.
There wasn’t much to brag about offensively either, with just seven hits in the game, and three of those were by Ally Sockey, including a double, an RBI, and two runs scored. Rheding Wagoner added a pair of hits as well.
Lincoln
On St. Patty’s day the Lady Bulldogs got back in the win column with a 6-5 victory over Lincoln, also in the Farmington-Fayetteville tournament. After the visitors tied the score in the top of the fifth with two runs, Greenwood pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the frame on an RBI hit by Mariah Hamilton.
Both teams struggled at the plate, combining for 11 hits in the game. Both teams also made three defensive errors. Starter Haven Clements and reliever Kimmie Colyer shared the pitching duties for Greenwood, with Colyer earning the late-inning victory.
Mariah Hamilton had two hits and three RBIs. Angela Price, Ericka Calderon, and Rheding Wagoner all had one hit each, and Price drove home a run. Calderon scored two runs as well.
Sheridan
On the same day, in a rematch of last spring’s state title game, the Lady Bulldogs faced the Sheridan Lady Yellowjackets, and the result was remarkably similar to last May. The game was close with excellent pitching on both sides, but the abbreviated tournament format allowed Sheridan to come away with a 2-1 win in 3½ innings.
The Lady ‘Jackets scored a single run off GHS starter Abbi Clem in the bottom of the first, but Greenwood tied the score in the top of third on a homerun to left centerfield by Ally Sockey.
But Sheridan scored again in the bottom of the third and held Greenwood scoreless in the top of the fourth for the win. Sockey and Angela Price had two hits each in the loss.
Bentonville West
After spring break, the Lady Bulldogs wasted little time getting back into action, traveling to Bentonville West High School this past Monday. But the trip home was somewhat less pleasant after suffering a 13-3 loss to the Class 7A school.
Leading 1-0 in the bottom of the second, the Lady Bulldogs were blindsided by a nine-run outburst by Bentonville off GHS starter Kimmie Colyer, who gave up eight hits and nine unearned runs in less than two innings of work.
A two-out GHS error opened the floodgates for Bentonville in the frame. Colyer was finally relieved by Abbi Clem, who later gave up four earned runs.
Offensively, Greenwood scored twice more in the third inning, but it was too little too late. Paxtyn Hayes and Ally Sockey had two hits each and Hayes drove home two runs.