3 days Ago
Does tradition ever graduate? Berkeley High School’s softball program doesn’t seem to allow it. Coach Kelley Dillon’s bunch extended its streak to eight straight region championships with a 2-0 victory over visiting Cane Bay High School Monday, April 28, in a Region 7-5A game played in Moncks Corner. “The kids come in and they want to be part of the tradition,” Dillon said.
“They work hard and continue to push and fight. Every season, this is a goal we work toward. This is our standard.
We need to take care of the region, which sets us up for the playoffs. We want to be there at the end sitting pretty with a good seed.” Senior pitcher Reese Watson, who was player of the year in the region as a junior, struck out 11 batters over seven innings and allowed just two hits in the shutout as Berkeley improved to 20-2 overall and 9-0 in the league.
Cane Bay dropped to 6-3 in the league. The run support Watson needed came in the middle innings. Mackenzie Herzog’s two-out single in the bottom of the fourth inning broke the scoreless tie and Watson bunted in an insurance run with one out in the Stags’ next at-bat in the form of catcher Brooklyn Moon.
Moon was hit by a pitch to start the fifth, stole second and moved to third base on a groundout off the bat of Lainey Amaker. The Stags won despite making more errors than recording hits, four to three. “It was scrappy and hard-fought,” Dillon said.
“I turn to Reese Watson taking care of business for us to where we may be off a little bit in the batter’s box, but because we have somebody we can depend on in the circle we can have an off night in the box or not be as sharp defensively. We know that kid, or any of our other pitchers help us feel comfortable.” Berkeley caps the region slate Wednesday, April 30, at Stratford and hosts Byrnes Thursday, May 1, in a non-region doubleheader to finish the regular season.
The Class 5A Div. II playoffs are slated to begin Monday, May 5, but Berkeley should get a bye to Wednesday, May 7. Dillon said all the hay isn’t in the barn yet and there are things the Stags can get better at before the postseason.
The season is the last in a Stags uniform for six seniors and they have their sights on a state championship, following the lead of the girls’ basketball team from this past winter. “There are always things to work on,” Dillon said. “The day we stay content and say we have it all, we’re not doing our jobs.
That’s not to say we’re not doing things really well, but to get to May 31 where we want to be, we’ve got to stay hungry and continue to get better in all areas of our game.”.
