Ella Cunningham continues to get better and better and as a result, the winning continues for the Silverdale Lady Seahawk softball team.
Facing by far their toughest competition of the season for the second time, the results were the same as Silverdale improved to 42-3 with its 29th straight win, this time beating the eight-time defending state champ Baylor Lady Red Raiders by a 2-0 final at Silverdale Monday night.
Cunningham had limited Baylor to just three hits in an early 1-0 victory at a tournament, but the hard-throwing southpaw was a bit better on Monday as she came within a walk and a hit batter of pitching her second perfect game of the season.
As it turns out, Monday's gem was her fifth no-hitter of the season.
As had been the case in their first meeting, Silverdale scored an unearned run in the first inning and made it stand. It looked like history might repeat itself in this game as well as an unearned run in the first gave the Lady Seahawks a 1-0 lead that stood until Cunningham ripped her 14th home run of the season over the fence in right with one out in the sixth to give her team a bit of a cushion.
“I just tried to stay calm today as I know how good Baylor is, but it was a good day for us all,” the 18-year-old lefty said after finishing the game with a dozen strikeouts.
“I feel like I threw what I needed to throw and I was pumped, so it turned out just fine,” she added.
Silverdale coach Jackie Freeland is just happy that Cunningham will be on her team at least one more month.
“Ella is such a competitor and always seems to rise to the occasion, whether it’s pitching or hitting, but she did a great job of keeping their hitters off-balance and we were able to make the plays defensively that we needed to make,” she said while standing in shallow left field.
“We play teams like Baylor to help us get better, but we can’t afford to leave runners on base. We don’t play again until Saturday, so we have some time to work on little stuff like that,” Freeland added.
That runners on base reference was talking about the fifth when Bita Cox walked to lead off, went to second on a sacrifice and then to third on a bunt single by Amare Starling, but nobody scored when Snyder got Emry Masterson on a grounder to short before ending the threat when Gabbie Hensley popped to short.
Baylor coach Kelli Smith has seen some pretty impressive pitchers during her time as head coach, but she would be hard-pressed to find anyone any better than Cunningham.
“I can’t say enough about Ella Cunningham as she was phenomenal today,” Smith said after her team dropped to 20-6-1 for the season.
“She kept us off-balance the entire game, so what a game she had. Silverdale has a great team and they were just better than us today, but I have to say something about my pitcher as well. Kaylee Snyder pitched a great game too. Crosby Huckabay is our pitching coach and calls all the pitches, but she had other obligations today and wasn’t here, so Kaylee called her own game and was superb,” Smith praised.
The Silverdale southpaw was indeed impressive as she retired the first 15 Baylor batters she faced before hitting Amiya Leach to lead off the sixth. Courtesy runner Brenley Gentry was sacrificed to second, but no further as Cunningham struck out Sydney Sharpe swinging for the second out before getting Addi Yates on a fly to center to end the inning.
Riley Oleksik became Baylor’s second base runner with a two-out walk in the seventh before Cunningham ended the game with her 12th strikeout.
Silverdale scored a run in the first when Hensley walked with one out. Courtesy runner Allie Weber then scored following a single by Cunningham when the relay from the outfield sailed past third.
The score remained 1-0 until Cunningham hit the first pitch with one out in the sixth for the second run.
Cunningham had two hits for Silverdale while a one-out single by Masterson in the third and a bunt single by Starling with one out in the fifth were the only other hits for the Lady Seahawks.
While Cunningham allowed no runs on no hits, she had the one walk and the one hit batter. Snyder was almost as good as she allowed one earned run on just four hits while walking two and striking out five.
BAYLOR 000 000 0 – 0 0 2
SILVERDALE 100 001 x – 2 4 0
Snyder and Oleksik; Cunningham and Hensley.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)