ENGLEWOOD — Lemon Bay rode some timely hitting and the stellar pitching of Mackenzie Vaughan to a 5-1 victory over DeSoto County in a District 4A-11 softball semifinal Tuesday night.
Vaughan went the distance on the mound and also drove in two runs as the Manta Rays got past the Bulldogs for the third time this season.
“There were some nice hits, some good pitching, some nice defensive plays, and then you end up with one whole time through the order without one hard hit ball,” Lemon Bay coach Kim Pinkham said. “But they gutted it out and they won. So that’s all we need at this point. It doesn’t always have to be pretty.”
Taylor Jones started the Mantas off in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff single against DeSoto starter Caleigh Duke. Jones moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Lauren Wise and a groundout by Savannah Taylor, then scored on a single by Vaughan.
That’s how it stayed until the fourth when Lemon Bay parlayed two Bulldog errors into another run and a 2-0 lead.
DeSoto threatened in the top of the fifth, loading the bases with one out before Vaughan struck out the next two batters.
The Mantas added another run in the bottom of the fifth as Jones drew a leadoff walk, was again sacrificed to second by Wise, stole third and scored on Vaughan’s single up the middle.
Lemon Bay got two more in the sixth as Paige Guardiola walked, followed by a sacrifice bunt by Cassidy Silvia. Guardiola went to third on a wild pitch and came home on a single to left by Kylie Jones. Grace Wear’s double drove in Jones with the final Manta run.
The Bulldogs got on the board and spoiled the shutout in the top of the seventh on a single by Anna Harvey and an RBI double by Joni Taylor.
Vaughan scattered five hits, walked three and struck out seven.
In a statistical anomaly, a week after striking out 20 times against Mariner, the Mantas did not strike out at all against DeSoto and executed three sacrifice bunts.
“All season long when we’ve needed a sacrifice bunt, they have dropped that down and done an amazing job and it puts us in a good position,” Pinkham said. “They’re tired at this point in the season, but this is where practices get even shorter and you just play for the fun of the game.”
DeSoto dropped a 9-1 decision to the Mantas two weeks ago, but was a lot more competitive this time.
“I felt like we had a chance,” Bulldogs coach Roy Dodd said. “We had bases loaded there once and then at the end of the game we had a chance to win it, but they didn’t quit. We hadn’t played a game in two weeks, so we were kind of wondering how they would come out and play and I was proud of them. They didn’t give up and they competed.”
DeSoto finished its season with an 11-9 mark. Lemon Bay is now 8-10 and will travel to Hardee for the district championship Thursday night.
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