Lady Seahawks beat Baker Gators twice

In a doubleheader, the South Walton Seahawks beat the visiting Baker Gators 7-2, 9-8 in girl’s softball.

“We were fortunate to get the wins. We’ve got to cut out the errors,” said South Walton Coach Bob Hartness.

The Seahawks committed five errors in each game.

“Our defense has been playing so well, but we’ve had two or three games where we just fall apart,” Hartness said. “Some of the things we practice, they go just the opposite of what we’ve practiced … it takes them out of the game. They just got to settle back in and do what we do on a daily basis.”

In the first game, Baker got on the board with a couple of runs on one hit and three errors. Emily Stewart got the lone hit for the Gators.

In the second, South Walton pitcher Alyssa Selvey put a stop to the Gators with three consecutive strikeouts. Selvey finished up the first game with 12 strikeouts.

The Seahawks put a run on the board in the bottom half with Shelby Baxley reaching on an error and scoring on a hit by Adrienne Crawley.

South Walton sat the Gators down quickly again in the top of the third on two pop flies and a strikeout.

The Seahawks took the lead in the bottom of the third. Selvey walked and Kelci Whitfield singled. Baxley ripped a single to right for two RBIs and a 3-2 advantage.

In the fourth, South Walton picked up two more runs. Makena Kimball singled up the middle and scored on a groundout by Selvey. Caitlin Hartsel singled to left center to score Erin Hartsel, who reached on an error. South Walton led 5-2.

The Seahawks scored two last runs, one in the fifth and the other in the sixth.

In the second game, both teams put up three runs in the first inning. South Walton scored three on walks and errors, while the Gators put the bat on the ball for four hits and three runs. Shelby Sloan, Emily Stewart, Genesis Long and Bethany McCranie each got hits.

In the third, Baker took the lead with two runs on couple of South Walton errors.

South Walton got the advantage back in the top of the fourth with three runs on three hits. Heaven Porter singled to right and Crawley ripped one to left. Porter scored on a passed ball and Crawley came home on a sacrifice by Erin Hartsel. Selvey was hit by a pitch and Sophia Hom, who was pinch running for Selvey, scored on a line-drive shot down the third baseline by Caitlin Hartsel for a 6-5 game.

Baker answered in the bottom half with three runs on a single by Shelby Sloan and two Seahawk errors.

The South Walton defense shut Baker down the next two turns at bat with Selvey striking out the side in the fifth. Shortstop Crawley pulled off a double play in the sixth.

In the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Caitlin Hartsel smacked a double to right center to clear the bases and give the Seahawks a 9-8 lead.

South Walton shut Baker down in short order in the bottom of the seventh on a couple of pop flies and a ground out.

For the game, Selvey struck out nine and gave up eight hits.

Big hitters for Baker were Shelby Sloan and Stewart each with three.

Connecting for two hits each for the Seahawks were Crawley, Caitlin Hartsel and Porter.

Up next for South Walton is a 6 p.m. game Friday at home against the Bozeman Bucks.