BEAR CREEK — Uwharrie Charter scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to erase a five-run deficit and beat Chatham Central in a non-conference softball rematch 15-7 on April 3.
“We were just trying to move runners and started figuring out they didn’t like when we were bunting,” Uwharrie Charter coach Haven Marine said. “So, we kept bunting, and finally in that inning, we had timely hits.”
The Eagles, who handed Chatham Central its first loss on March 12, snapped a two-game skid and gave the Bears their largest loss of the season.
Emory Johnson led Uwharrie Charter at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Four other Eagles contributed two RBIs in the win.
Down 6-1 after four innings, Ryley Thompson got the rally started with a single to center field.
“I noticed that they started getting tired, so I just took a deep breath and was patient to bat and waited for my pitch,” Thompson said.
Peyton Williams kept it going with another single two at bats later, starting a run of 10 straight batters reaching a base.
Following a single from Jayla Hurley that brought in the first two runs of the inning, Carly Rush hit a ground ball to third base, sending Hurley in for a 6-4 deficit.
But instead of the play resulting in the Eagles’ second out at first base, Rush made it safe after the throw from third to first didn’t connect.
Costly errors in which throws to first base were out of reach or dropped happened twice more for Chatham Central in the inning, and of course, they both occurred on bunts. The second one, which could’ve been the third out, resulted in an extra run from Gracie Smith’s bunt and a 7-6 lead for Uwharrie Charter.
“Mistakes are going to happen,” Chatham Central coach John Warf said. “You just got to forget about them and move on. Because if you don’t, they compound. That’s what happened. We had them compound up on us.”
Said Warf, “We had people playing out of their normal positions, and when you don’t have everybody, it hurts.”
Chatham Central even made a pitching change, but that didn’t stop the bleeding.
The Bears walked in two runs following the switch, and wild pitches allowed another pair of runs to score in the final two at bats of the inning.
Prior to the dramatic change of events, Chatham Central took advantage of Uwharrie Charter’s defensive mistakes for a 6-0 lead after the first two innings. The Bears struggled to get a hit early in the game, but the Eagles walked in two runs and two second inning errors put eventual scorers on base.
Williams, the freshman who took over the pitching duties for Katelyn West in the first inning, came up huge for the Eagles amid their comeback. After the second inning, Williams retired five batters and held the Bears to zero earned runs.
“Because we haven’t won in a few games, I was like, ‘well, we need to get our rally back,’” Williams said. “So, I was fighting out there on the mound for us to win.”
The comeback win was much needed to avoid a third straight loss, but it also served as another reminder why the young and rebuilding Uwharrie Charter squad is still finding success and in the battle for a playoff spot.
Marine said he wants his team to build on their “fight” throughout the rest of the season.
“(Chatham Central) had us down 7-4 the last time we played them,” Marine said. “We came back and won in the bottom of the seventh. So, that’s one thing I like to see. They always continue to fight. We’re mixing different kids in and doing different things, and it’s working for now.”
