Lower Sussex wins Junior Softball state title

Lower Sussex wins Junior Softball state title, photo courtesy of Benny Mitchell

Georgetown – Lower Sussex won their second Junior League state title in three years beating District 1 representative Camden-Wyoming 10-0 in five innings at the Georgetown Little League Complex.

Coming off of the Indian River High School softball team’s state final appearance last month, Lower Sussex manager Matthew Kreger feels that his girls feed off that success.

“These girls really look up to the older girls,” Kreger said.

Winning pitcher Autumn Willie tossed a two-hitter, striking out eight batters over five innings. When Camden-Wyoming was able to get the bat on the ball the Lower Sussex defense was there to make a play.

“We have an excellent defense to back up a dominant pitcher,” Kreger said.

Lower Sussex jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning as they sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning sparked by a two-rbi double by catcher Sophia Bowen.

Brianna Clark led off the third inning with a double as Lower Sussex added three more runs collecting three hits in the inning.

Lower Sussex added three more runs in the top of the fifth which was sparked by a Taygan Conaway lead off hit. Conaway had three hits in the game to lead Lower Sussex.

“We like to be aggressive on offense. We hit, we lay down bunts and when we get runners on we like to steal bases,” Kreger said.

Clark and Bowen each had a pair of hits for Lower Sussex, Morgan Marvel and Kaelyn McGinness added hits while Willie added a single to help her own cause in the circle.

Camden-Wyoming threatened in the third with consecutive hits from Kadence McFetridge and Alexis Burke to lead off the inning, but Willie was able to shut down the inning with a pair of strikeouts. Audrey Gutierrez had a hit for Camden-Wyoming.

Emma Gettings took the loss in the circle for Camden-Wyoming, but had six strikeouts over her four innings of work.

Lower Sussex won the opening game 15-0 over on Saturday. Lower Sussex is 4-0 so far this summer winning the District 3 championship with a pair of wins over Laurel. They will advance to the Junior League Eastern Regional in Orange, Connecticut where they will start tournament play against New York on July 20.