Lakeside’s Vanessa Oliver (left) and Arabia Mountain’s Madison Heath (right) were named MVPs of the Blue and Red All-Star teams, respectively, for their play in the Blue’s 20-7 win. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Blue All-Stars scored nine runs in the first inning on the way to a 20-7 victory over the Red All-Stars to even the DeKalb County Senior All-Star Softball Classic series at 5-5.
It was the 20th All-Star Classic with the East/West format for the first 10 seasons finished in a 5-5 tie before switching to the Red/Blue format.
The Blue took advantage of two errors by the Red squad along with two walks and two hit batters in the big first inning to take control of the game.
Kalani Wright (Stone Mountain), Vanessa Oliver (Lakeside) and MacKenzie Cassidy all contributed RBI singles in the inning to go with a two-run single to left by Sophia Gallo (Lakeside).
The Red rallied for three runs in the bottom of the first keyed by an inside-the-park home run to right-center by Kenidi Johnson (Arabia Mountain) and an RBI single by Da’Niyah Jones (M.L. King) to close the gap to 9-3.
Back-to-back RBI singles by Nyla Warren (Stone Mountain) and Oliver and a RBI groundout by Catherine Matthews (Druid Hills) tacked three runs ono for the Blue in the top of the second and extended the lead to 12-3.
Di’Jah Dawson (Lithonia) drove in a run with a single to right in the bottom of the third and Jayla Jones (SW DeKalb) drove in another run by reaching on an error. The two runs closed the gap to 12-5 with three innings completed.
The Blue went scoreless in the third inning but bounced back with a four-run fourth to open a 16-5 lead. Oliver and Juliet Tete (Clarkston) had RBI singles in the inning and Nyekeria Freeman (Stone Mountain) walked with the bases loaded to drive in another run.
A two-run bottom of the fourth by the Red made it a 16-7 game as Madison Heath (Arabia Mountain) singles to score Madison Roberts (Miller Grove) who had walked earlier in the inning. Arion Sterling (Lithonia) stole home for the other run.
Redan’s Destinee Johnson (right) takes off from first on the pitch while Southwest DeKalb first baseman Jayla Jones (left) gets set to play defense. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Oliver hit into a fielder’s choice with runners on first and second in the top of the fifth and error allowed Christine Olsen (Lakeside) who had walked to start the inning to score. Matthews followed with a two-run triple and later scored on a passed ball as the lead grew to 20-7.
Pitcher Maggie Kelly was facing a one-out and a runner on second situation in the bottom of the fifth but induced a pop-up on the infield that turned into a double play by first baseman MacKenzie Cassidy who caught the ball and threw to second for the double-play to end the game.
Presley Caudle (Druid Hills) pitched three innings and struck out six to get the win. Lithonia’s Di’Jah Dawson took the loss while also going three innings.
Lakeside’s Vanessa Oliver finished the day 3-4 at the plate with three RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases to be selected the Blue MVP. Kalani Wright (Stone Mountain) was 2-2, scored two runs and drove in another. Catherine Matthews (Druid Hills was 1-3 at the plate with a triple and three RBI. Lakeside’s Sophia Gallo was 1-3 at the plate with two RBI and three stolen bases.
Presley Caudle (Druid Hills) and Destinee Johnson (Redan) tied for a new record in the All-Star Classic as both were hit-by-pitch twice in the game.
Madison Heath (Arabia Mountain) finished the day with a new game record of five stolen bases (broke record of 4 by Latiya Lee, Miller Grove in 2019) and was 1-1 at the plate with two runs scored and a RBI. Da’Niyah Jones (M.L. King) was 2-2 at the plate with a double and RBI.
See links below for Boxscore and All-Star Classic Records: