Great Bridge wins Southeastern District softball title

[Jeff Cunningham]

SUFFOLK -- Great Bridge made it a clean sweep Wednesday night at Nansemond River High School.

Before the baseball team wrapped up its Southeastern District tournament title, the softball team did the same, beating Hickory 2-0 in the championship game.

Hickory, the top seed, tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh, as Brittney Powell reached on a two-base error by left fielder Jackie Granata. But Jaclyn Quinn grounded out to second to end the game.

The Wildcats first struck in the top of the second, when Noell Rogers doubled home Kristen Cheesebrew.

Jacqueline Palk singled to lead off the top of the sixth, then later scored on an error.

Hickory retains the top seed in the upcoming Eastern Region tournament, by virtue of taking the regular-season district title. Great Bridge will be the district's No. 2 seed.

[sbfan9]

What does a good pitcher do to keep batters off balance? They mix their pitches well and sometimes throw a change up. What does a good team do to keep the other team off balance? They mix their pitchers well by sometimes changing up their pitchers. That’s exactly what Great Bridge did Wednesday night to Hickory in the Southeastern District championship game. Great Bridge and Hickory faced off two times in the regular season with each team winning a game. The first game won by GB on Hickory errors and the second won by Hickory on good hitting. It took Hickory 1 ½ games to master GB pitching ace, Chelsea Henline. So, for the championship game, GB “changed up” their pitchers by going to the back up, Kaitlynn Szczepanski. And as with any good “change up”, Kaitlynn kept the Hickory batters off balance all game by pitching a two hit shutout.