Bryson City – The schedule has been anything but kind to the Lady Devils so far, as they opened with the top teams in the Smoky Mountain Conference. But the Lady Devils have put in a ton of hard work over the past weeks and approached Thursday’s game with Hayesville with a new look. Swain came out hard charging scoring 3 runs in their half of the 1st inning, from there they never gave up the lead and took a 6-4 win over the Jackets.
In the bottom of the first, Haileigh Woodard singled with one out, then Maddie Spates and Savana Smith both coaxed walks to load the bases. Kandyce Crisp singled to centerfield to score Woodard from 3rd. With the bases still loaded Faith Woodard singled home Spates. Then in the next at bat Addisyn Jenkins grounded out scoring Smith to give Swain a 3-0 lead.
Swain would tack on two more runs in the 2nd inning. Kiersten Smith and Haileigh Woodard both singled, with Smith scoring off of an errant throw on the Woodard hit. The error would leave Woodard on 3rd. Maddie Spates promptly hit a fly ball to centerfield to score Woodard and leave the Lady Devils with a 5-1 lead.
In the 4th it would be the same trio that combined for the Devils final run. Smith and Woodard singled. Then Smith scored when Spates singled, but the throw to first went by the first baseman allowing Smith to score, but Woodard was thrown out at home to end the threat.
Hannah Shuler had her best game of the season in the circle. Shuler scattered nine hits, giving up four earned runs, while walking three and striking out a season high 8 batters. With the effort Shuler picked up her first varsity win in the circle. The Lady Devils played flawless in the field, committing no errors.
Haileigh Woodard paced Swain at the plate, as she finished 3-4 with 2 runs scored. Kiersten Smith and Kandyce Crisp both were 2-3, with Smith scoring twice and Crisp knocking in a run. Maddie Spates was 1-1 with 2 runs batted in. Swain would finish with 10 hits on the night.