Bishops come up short vs. Cheraw in districts

Class AA Softball

Cheraw needed to beat Bishop England twice Wednesday to deny the Bishops a ninth consecutive District 6 softball title, and while that seemed an almost insurmountable task, the Braves were up to it.

Cheraw beat Bishop England 7-3 and 4-1 at Bishop England to move into the Class AA Lower State championship series.

"We had our chances and we didn't capitalize," said Bishop England coach Mark Pender. "We had runners in scoring position and couldn't get the big hit. I give all the credit to Cheraw. They battled their butts off both games, got the breaks, and we didn't. That's what makes champions."

Bishop England led in both games, but both times watched the lead slip away.

The Bishops led 2-0 in the first game, but BE errors and timely hits by the Braves took their toll.

"We did something in the first game we haven't done in a long, long time," Pender said. "We didn't play defense, and that hurt us. We extended innings, and they scored runs.

"When you have a team like they have, if you extend innings base hits are going to fall in and they're going to score runs. We just didn't get out of it."

In the second game, the Bishops broke up a pitching duel when Elizabeth Works scored from third on a wild pitch to put Bishop England ahead 1-0 in the fifth.

Cheraw tied it in the bottom half of the inning.

Works, a ninth-grader, turned in a solid effort on the mound for Bishop England, but she couldn't stop Cheraw from coming up with the big hits late in the game.

Tiffany Chapman delivered a two-run double in a three-run sixth inning for Cheraw to all but put the game away.

Leslie Hensley pitched both games for Cheraw.

"The Hensley girl is the real deal," Pender said. "But I thought we pitched well also, with only a few exceptions."