It wasn’t the same double-digit dominance that the Lake Mary All-Stars used in their first two victories at the Little League Softball World Series.
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But it was a different kind of softball dominance that led Lake Mary, Southeast Region champs, to a 5-0 win over Washington on Friday in Greenville, N.C., and into Saturday’s bracket final — one victory away from playing for the tournament championship.
In its previous win over Northwest Region champ Snohomish, Washington, on Sunday, Lake Mary won 14-0 in four innings and bashed the ball all around the ballpark.
This time for Lake Mary, it was clutch pitching, aggressive baserunning, small-ball hitting and stellar defense that produced another shutout. It was a bounce-back win for Lake Mary after a 5-2 loss to North Carolina on Thursday.
Lake Mary gets a rematch with North Carolina at 6 p.m. on Saturday for the Purple Bracket championship.
The double-elimination format of the tournament only applies up until the bracket finals. Now, the winner of each bracket final Saturday (Purple and Orange) will advance to the championship Sunday, while the losing teams will play in a consolation game.
“Our saying was just to go one and zero, just win the next game and keep battling,” starting pitcher Brynn Fieser said in the ESPN postgame interview.
Fieser pitched 3.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts, one walk and two hits allowed. She also had an RBI double in the third inning to drive in Lake Mary’s first run.
Washington had a runner on first base in the top of the fourth inning when the game was halted for one hour and 20 minutes because of lightning in the area.
After the delay, Lake Mary manager Brent Fieser replaced his daughter in the circle with Chloe Cheek. She struck out the next batter before giving up a single, but center fielder Kylie Green threw out the runner going to third base.
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“I felt like it was time to change it up since they were turning the lineup over,” Brent Fieser told ESPN after the game about the pitching change.
Lake Mary scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to break open the tight contest.
The All-Stars had four singles, including a squeeze bunt to score a run, three stolen bases, and took advantage of a wild pitch and a passed ball. There were also productive outs, with a run scoring on a fielder’s choice groundout and a sacrifice fly.
In addition to the outfield assist by Green, Lake Mary’s infield turned two double plays.
With the smaller infield, double plays on grounders don’t happen in softball much, especially in Little League. But Lake Mary ended the first inning with a 1-6-3 double play on a come-backer to Fieser in the circle, and ended the game with a perfectly executed 4-6-3 double play.
“How amazing was that?” Brent Fieser said. “Our defense showed up for their pitchers today. The girls know where to go with the ball on those plays because of how hard they work on them in practice.”
None of the other 11 teams in the World Series have completed a double play in this year’s tournament.
As for the bracket final, it will be an even busier day for Brent since his son, Bowen, is playing for Lake Mary in the 11U baseball Southeast regional about 45 minutes away in Wilson, N.C. He said he will watch his son before returning to the softball complex in Greenville.
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