Dunwoody’s Alani Moore (11) holds Stephenson’s Maiah Lenz close the bag druing the 2022 DCSD Senior All-Star Softball Classic. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Blue All-Stars pulled with one game of the Red All-Stars in the DeKalb County Schools Senior All-Star Softball Classic with a 17-1 victory on Tuesday at Lakeside.
While Chamblee’s Lily McCord struck out eight of the 15 batters she faced in four innings, the Blue hitters struck for 12 runs to take a commanding 12-1 lead.
Clarkston’s Navaeh Jones drew a bases-loaded walk to start the scoring for the Blue team and Druid Hills’ Deonna Frazier singled to left with the bases loaded to plate two more for a 3-0 lead heading into the second inning.
McCord gave up a hit to Dunwoody’s Alani Moore in the top of the second but set down the next three Red hitters, two via strikeout to bring the Blue back up to the plate.
McCord hit an RBI single, and an error allowed another run as the Blue All-Stars extended the lead to 5-0. McCord followed up in the third inning by striking out the side to bring her team to bat quickly.
Bases loaded walks to Chamblee’s Parker Smith, McCord, Jones and Frazier along with an RBI single by Chamblee’s Rachel Runsick added five more runs for the Blue to make it 10-0 after three complete innings.
Tania Shoulders followed A two-out single by McNair’s Jamiya Parker to score Parker and put the Red on the scoreboard down 10-1 heading to the Blue’s half of the inning.
Martin Luther King’s Asia Bell who had relieved starter Desha Maddox of McNair struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the fourth but got into trouble with a double by Stone Mountain’s Amal Abu-Manye and three consecutive walks. Abu-Manye stole home and Jeniah Williams of Cedar Grove singled in a run to up the advantage to 12-1.
Chamblee’s Rachel Runsick came in to pitch the fifth and sixth for the Blue squad allowing two hits, but no runs over her stint in the circle.
Five straight walks kicked off the Blue’s bottom of the fifth plating two of the five runs in the inning as Druid Hills’ Ajah McDowell and Frazier drew bases-loaded walks. Williams slapped a two-run double, and Cedar Grove’s Miracle Howard grounded out to first to score the final run to make it 17-1.
Abu-Manye and McDowell scored runs in the bottom of the sixth aided by an error, two walks and a strikeout that reached base to make the final of 17-1.
2022 All-Star Softball MVPS
Chamblee’s Lily McCord (left) and Arabia Mountain’s Tania Shoulders (right). (Photo by Mark Brock)
Chamblee’s Savannah Russell faced two batters in the top of the seventh and Parker Smith one as the pair set the Red down in order to close out the game.
Arabia Mountain’s Tania Shoulders was 1-3 with a double and drove in the only run for the Red to earn team MVP honors for the game. Miller Grove’s Jaylen Clark was 1-2 with a double and McNair’s Jamiya Parker was 1-2 and scored the lone run.
Chamblee’s Lily McCord’s all-around performance earned her the Blue MVP award as she went 1-2 with two RBI at the plate and pitched four innings. She struck out eight, walked none, allowed two hits and just one run. Cedar Grove’s Janiah Williams was 2-2 with a double, 3 RBI and was hit by a pitch to lead the team at the plate. Deonna Frazier of Druid Hills was 1-2 with three walks and four RBI (two via bases loaded walks).
The Blue has now won two consecutive matchups in the series to close the gap to 5-4 in favor of the Red. The Red All-Stars have
twice won back-to-back games in the series.
See link below for the complete boxscore of the 2022 DCSD Senior All-Star Softball Classic and History-Records: