MONTGOMERY– Win or go home was the name of the game when Cullman took the field against Hillcrest Friday morning and the Lady Cats did just that, winning the contest in impressive fashion 9-0.
Olivia Schwaiger was once again in the circle for Cullman and once again, she was dominating. She not only shut out Hillcrest, eliminating them from the tournament, but she did it by striking out 11. Oh yeah, she also was 2-3 at the plate with three RBIs and three runs scored.
“If we lost this game, we would be going home,” said Snead State verbal commit Schwaiger on what was going through her mind in the circle today. “I had the mindset, we are not going home. Not this early in the tournament. We are not working our way here, working hard and going home.”
Cullman’s offense exploded for five runs with two outs. Taiya Ponder was the first base runner for Cullman when she reached on an errant throw by the Hillcrest pitcher, Maci Morrow. Sierra Easterwood followed her with a single to right. After a pop out, Ellie Dixon drew a base on balls to load the bags for McKensi Burks, who smashed a double to deep right center that scores Ponder and Easterwood. Olivia Schwaiger would follow and help herself out in a big way with a two-run double that rattled up against the fence, scoring Dixon and Burks. Tiffani Schwaiger would follow her cousin at the plate, knocking her in with an RBI single to put the Lady Cats up 5-0 after one.
The ladies clad in black and gold would tack on three more runs in the third, putting the game out of the reach of the Lady Patriots. Dixon, Burks, Olivia and Tiffani all had hits in the inning, with the big blow coming off the bat of Tiffani, a two-run double. Cullman would also add an academic run in the fifth thanks to back-to-back errors on Meredith Wheat. Kyile Witcher delivered the RBI single.
Cullman advances to play again at noon vs. Southside, the runner up in the North region, the same region the Lady Cats won last week.
Tiffani Schwaiger finished the game with two hits and three RBIs. Burks added two hits and two RBIs, while Witcher had a single and an RBI. Easterwood and Dixon added two hits each with Ponder adding an infield single. Burks, Easterwood, Dixon and Ponder all scored runs.
