By Lonnie Turner

The road to the Dixie Belles (15 and under) Girls Softball State Championship of late has to go through the team from Turbeville! The Dillon girls had little trouble with Clarendon County, 10-0 winners, and Lower Florence, 10-0 and 10-0, but the young ladies from Turbeville stopped the Dillon express, 6-3, in their first meeting and were victorious again in the Championship game, by a 5-2 score, ending quite a run for the Dillon girls.

Taylor Blackmon had two hits in the final game to lead the Dillon Belles at the plate and Shar’Asia Samuels’ RBI single gave the home girls a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning after falling behind 1-0 in the third, but Turbeville tied the game in the third and went ahead with two more runs in the fifth, before closing the scoring with a lone run in the final at-bat in the sixth. Dillon was set down in order in the final two innings. Dillon outhit Turbeville, 10-9, but left nine runners stranded on base. Johnna Rogers and Auh’Kierra Smiling had a double apiece and with singles were Brittany Miller, Kaleigh Caulder, Shar’Asia Samuels, Brianna Froneburger, Emilee Price and Bailey Grosetti.

Brittany Miller hit a grand slam homer and a three-run four-bagger to lead Dillon past Lower Florence, 10-0, in the last game leading up to the championship game and singled in her other trip to the plate to account for seven runs batted in. After Keleigh Caulder and Johnna Rogers rapped back to back singles, Auh’Kerria Smiling walked to load the bases and Miller hit a 1-2 pitch out of the park. Shar’Asia Samuels followed with a single and two outs later, Taylor Blackmon’s single scored Samuel. After Sha’Miya McLean’s base hit sent Blackmon to third, Emilee Price then batted Blackmon in with her first of two RBI singles. In the third Smiling led off with a base hit and Miller hit a 1 and 0 pitch for her second safety of the game, but both runners were left stranded. In the fourth McLean singled with one out and Price picked up her second run batted in with another single. Miller added insult to injury in the fifth inning when after Rogers and Smiling had reached base on singles, she hit the second pitch thrown to her for a walk-off homer run that ended the game by the ten-run rule. McLean, Smiling and Rogers finished the game with two hits apiece. Defensively, Johnna Rogers, Brittany Miller, and Kaleigh Caulder combined on the mound to shut out Lower Florence on a two-hitter.

Kaleigh Caulder led all batters with three hits in three times at the plate in Dillon’s first 10-0 shut out of Lower Florence County. Dillon took an early 3-0 lead after one inning and then the bottom fell out as the Dillon girls sent ten batters to the plate in the fourth. Consecutive hits by Auh’Kierra Smiling, Caulder, Froneburger, Ashley Phillips, Taylor Blackmon, Sha’Miya McLean and Emilee Price and an RBI sacrifice fly by Brittany Miller resulted in four runs. The hitting barrage continued in the fifth after one out. After Johnna Rogers doubled and Smiling walked, back to back singles by Miller and Caulder gave the Dillon girls a 9-0 lead. Miller went to third when Branna Froneburger singled and slid safely at the plate after a wild pitch for the win. There were four girls with at least two base hits in the game, including a pair of singles by, Johnna Rogers, Au’Kerria Smiling and Ashley Phillips. Johnna Rogers, Brittany Miller, and Kaleigh Caulder combined again to pitch a two-hitter to give Dillon a 2-0 record.

In the opener with Clarendon County, Dillon blew a tight 1-0 pitchers duel wide open with five runs in the fourth inning when the starting pitcher of Clarendon County ran into control problems. After getting two outs in the books, she walked Brittany Miller with Johnna Rogers on base as a result of a one-out walk. After a pitching change, Shar’Asia Samuels greeted the new hurler with a single and Brianna Froneburger walked setting the stage for Ashley Phillips, who belted a double to score two runs. Taylor Blackmon worked the pitcher for a base on balls and Phillips scored from third on a passed ball to end the scoring in the inning.

In the sixth, Dillon rallied for three more runs to end the game by the ten-run rule. Rogers led off the inning with a single and scored when Auh’Kierra Smiling reached base on an error in the outfield. Phillips doubled for the second time sending Smiling across the plate and a two bagger by Sha’Miya McLean ended the scoring with an RBI double before the third out in the inning. Rogers was the starting and winning pitcher going for three innings on the mound, Miller pitched to only seven batters in two innings and Kaleigh Caluder closed out the game with a perfect performance striking out one of the three batters that she faced in the bottom of the sixth. McLean and Emilee Price had back to back doubles in the third inning to score the first run of the game.

Photos submitted by Johnny Lynn Rogers. Click images below to view at full size.