Semoball

Clearwater's Brewington pitches perfect game; Tigers beat Dexter 14-0 in C2D2 softball tournament

Clearwater’s Rebecca Brewington pitches to Dexter’s Alexis Ingram during the second inning of the MSHSAA Class 2 District 2 first-round game Monday, May 3, 2021, at Marble Hill. Brewington pitched a five-inning perfect game in Clearwater’s 14-0 victory.
DEXTER STATESMAN/Kyle Smith

MARBLE HILL — Rebecca Brewington pitched a five-inning perfect game, and the Clearwater Tigers produced another big inning.

The third-seeded Tigers scored 11 runs in the third inning and rolled to a 14-0 victory over sixth-seeded Dexter in the first round of the MSHSAA Class 2 District 2 Softball Tournament on Monday at Woodland Schools.

Clearwater (13-9) will face second-seeded Arcadia Valley (11-4) in the semifinals at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, weather permitting. Arcadia Valley beat seventh-seeded Charleston 20-0 in the first round.

Top-seeded Scott City (12-8) will face fifth-seeded Bloomfield (8-9) in the other semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Bloomfield beat fourth-seeded Woodland 2-0 in the first round.

Brewington struck out nine, while allowing Dexter to put only six balls into play.

“She came out with a little bit of a bum ankle, but she pitched about as well as she has all year,” Clearwater coach Shannon England said. “She pitched lights out, a perfect game. … She had velocity and pinpoint control today. If we get that moving forward, I think we’ll have a chance.”

Brewington shut down the Bearcats’ top four hitters, who have developed into a strength as the season has progressed.

“Our top four hitters (Kinleigh Chappell, Hannah Pyles, Amelia Jenkins and Kennedy Bess) before this game were all batting over .400 and one of them over .500,” Dexter coach Starla Pulley said. “We were a little off today. Clearwater has a great pitcher. She pitched a great game today.”

Dexter’s Jenkins pitched out of a first-inning jam and a 1-2-3 second inning to keep pace with Brewington.

“First two innings, we held them pretty good,” Pulley said. “They started hitting and we had errors. It just comes from lack of experience. When you have a lot of girls who only play school ball — a lot of them haven’t played since the sixth grade and we don’t have a middle school program — it’s tough coming out and competing against girls who play travel ball all year around.”

The Bearcats committed two errors in the third inning that resulted in five unearned runs, as Clearwater took control of the game.

“In the last week, that’s the fourth inning we’ve had more than 10 runs,” England said. “The offense has been clicking, and we’ve been hitting them in bunches. Then we’ve been easing up a little bit. I’d like more sustained (hitting) but we’ll take the big innings, too.”

Seventeen batters came to the plate in the third, and the Bearcats didn’t record an out until Clearwater had batted around.

Lauren Wheelehon and Abigail Chaney delivered the big hits. Wheelebon hit a two-run single to give Clearwater a 5-0 lead, and Cheney delivered a two-run double for an 8-0 lead.

Laci Brown drove home a pair of runs with a bases-loaded walk and a double, and Cheney and Riley Hurt had two hits apiece.

The Tigers scored three runs — all unearned — in the fourth to extend the lead to 14-0. Dexter committed three of its six errors in the fourth.

Jenkins gave up 14 runs — six earned — on 11 hits with five strikeouts, three walks and a hit-batsman in four innings.

“We ended the season 8-10. It’s better than I thought it would be with the start we had,” Pulley said. “I saw a lot of growth in a lot of girls. Amelia did a stellar job for us pitching-wise. She pitched virtually the whole season. I think there were four games where Kennedy (Bess) helped us out.”

The Bearcats started the season 0-4 and were outscored 33-2 during that stretch. They averaged 11.2 runs per game over their final 13 regular-season contests.

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