STARTING STRONG, FINISHING STRONGER: In midst of another magnificent gem by Whiting, No. 4 Lady Wolverines bookend Class C2 Semi with clamorous offense to knock out No. 1 Dundee/Bradford with 9-2 win

BRADFORD — Whenever Bolivar-Richburg has entrusted the ball to their stellar freshman pitcher Kylee Whiting, the sky’s the limit.

Across a span of six starts stemming towards the beginning of May against Fillmore, Whiting has been absolutely marvelous, recording at least 10 strikeouts in five of those contests — two of them coming in their first two battles of the postseason, including a masterful 15-strikeout no-hit performance against Kendall to reach the Class C2 Semifinal round.

Her poise and her excellence from within the circle has allowed the No. 4 Lady Wolverines to put together their best run of softball of their Spring.

Head coach Brooke Lovell says that Whiting has transformed into a one-of-a-kind player, and that her overwhelming success, whether it comes from the mound or even as one of the biggest threats at the plate, is direct evidence of that.

“Kylee is a very special player,” she said. “She puts in a lot of work to get better at what she does, so I am beyond happy to see that she has had such amazing success this season. The team gets behind her and they all support her 100 percent. This is a great group of players that genuinely want their teammates to all succeed and do well together. This is the kind of team dynamic that you don’t really see often.”

Entering Friday night’s titanic clash with No. 1 Dundee/Bradford for a spot in the Class C2 Finals the following day, Whiting looked to continue upholding the standard that she has now set in place.

To do it, the Lady Wolverines needed to add their second ingredient into the mix — their offense.

At this stage of the game, with a potential trip to Section V’s big dance waiting in the wings, you will need all of the offense you can muster. Elongating over the last several battles, there has been absolutely no shortage of that, as Bolivar-Richburg has continued to light their sticks on fire at the dish through every single avenue possible.

It was no different right from the start, as the Lady Wolverines generated a loud first inning against the Lady BraveScots to claim an advantage that they ultimately locked down and put in their back pocket for the foreseeable future. Despite falling into an early hole, the top-seeds continued to apply every single burst of pressure they could to interrupt Bolivar-Richburg’s flow. But each time, the Lady Wolverines came away undeterred.

When the action flipped to the seventh inning, the decibel level on the No. 4 seed’s side of the field was through the roof. In the same swing, so was their grand finale.

With the rain clouds closing in around the field in Bradford, there would be absolutely no raining on Bolivar-Richburg’s parade.

They went on march. March their way straight to Honeoye Falls.

What was a 4-2 advantage for the Lady Wolverines that kept Dundee/Bradford within striking distance, was completely and unequivocally altered by the No. 4 seeds. It started as a snowball at first, and then, it quickly rumbled down the hill to become a seventh inning avalanche, registering five mammoth runs to pull away, as they used their strong start and an even stronger finish to propel towards a spot in Saturday night’s Class C2 Finals with a 9-2 win over the Lady BraveScots.

“I’m glad at how resilient the girls have been all season. Kylee pitched a great game and we made some great plays behind her. We were able to execute on offense, and that was really nice to see. They put an exclamation point on the game. The bottom of the order really helped us come through at that point with some really quality at-bats to break things open. The start of the game was equally as important. To come out and score early like we did, we executed our plan perfectly.” said Lovell.

Right from the get-go, the Lady Wolverines (15-4) were fired up, beginning with a Teegan Sibble bunt to kick the wheels in motion with activity around the bases. Then, the Whiting siblings — Kylee and Rylee went back-to-back with two base hits that scored both Thomas and Sibble to double their advantage on the Lady BraveScots at an instant.

Rylee Whiting then used her base-running prowess to eyeball a passed ball that squirted free to the backstop behind the plate, flooring it straight home to score the team’s third run of the frame before the top-seeds worked their way off on a fly-out to right field by Cassidy Stives.

With the lead in hand, the No. 4 seeds looked to Kylee Whiting in the circle, as she kept Dundee/Bradford frozen at the plate off back-to-back 1-2-3 rapid-fire innings — including two straight strikeouts and a secured pop-fly by Sydney Faulkner behind the plate to end the second inning of battle.

The momentum slightly turned in the Lady BraveScots’ favor when the third inning arrived, holding Bolivar-Richburg still before they went on to cut their deficit down to a pair after a two-out double by Korrin Yeoman landed right over the head of Emma Sisson in right field, scratching Emily Rosno across at the plate.

The defensive duel raged on for the next pair of innings, including a fourth stanza that saw the Lady Wolverines place two base-runners on behind the Dundee/Bradford defense with two outs. But the top-seeds managed to come away unscathed during that juncture with a pop-up to the infield from Thomas.

In the top of the sixth, with Dundee/Bradford continuing to keep their presence in Bolivar-Richburg’s rearview mirror apparent, the Lady Wolverines added a big breath of fresh air with the retrieval of their three-run lead from earlier in the contest, headlined by a pair of bunts at the bottom of their order from Danika Loucks and Danika Saunders to move Cassidy Stives straight into scoring position, with Saunders reaching on her bunt that emphatically settled motionlessly straight in front of the plate.

Bolivar-Richburg transitioned back up to the top of their order for their next offensive sequence with two outs, and with it, Jayna Thomas delivered a big time blow down the left field line to plate Stives. Saunders then trailed right behind her as another potential piece of insurance, but a humongous throw from Rosno in left field to meet Yeoman at the plate caught Saunders in the nick of time to end the stand of defense for Dundee/Bradford.

In the bottom half of the frame, the three-run lead for the Lady Wolverines was cut back down to two once again, as the Lady BraveScots kept giving everything they had to maintain their distance. Morgan Sutryk was next in line to provide a major run for Dundee/Bradford with the dropping of a two-out single into right field to score Yeoman. But as the Lady BraveScots attempted to pick up steam, it was Whiting in the circle that cooled them off again, ending the inning with a big strikeout — her 11th of the game, to send the action into the seventh.

A seventh inning of epic proportions.

There was simply no better time for the Lady Wolverines to begin their streaking away from Dundee/Bradford. To go with their red-hot start out of the gate in the first, they topped it with a five-run final stand all with absolutely nobody out. Teegan Sibble, Kylee Whiting and Rylee Whiting all reached base to open up the top half of the frame to load up the bases, and in one swing on their fourth at-bat, Faulkner delivered a skying shot to center field that dropped to plate two runs.

After a Cassidy Stives bunt allowed Rylee Whiting to score, the avalanche then came down with yet another two-run shot, this time from Danika Loucks, as she took care of business by freeing the rest of the bags on a double to right field to yield a 9-2 lead that Bolivar-Richburg never lost sight of again, keeping Dundee/Bradford far and away from reach.

When it was all said and done, Bolivar-Richburg put together a dynamic nine-run, 10-hit display of offense against the Lady BraveScots, with the Whitings and Cassidy Stives all recording two hits each.

Immediately into their final tenure of defense, the Lady Wolverines left Dundee/Bradford’s last base-runner hanging with one out, as Whiting took care of the rest with strikeouts No. 12 and 13 in consecutive fashion to knock out Class C2’s top seed and head to the Finals the very next day.

As for the Class C2 Finals itself, the Lady Wolverines have departed town upon this article’s publishing to make their way for Honeoye Falls-Lima to battle for Sectional glory, as they now get set to take on No. 2 Oakfield-Alabama in a 4 p.m. first pitch tonight.

Stay tuned for updates!

Bolivar-Richburg 300 001 5 — 9 10 0

Dundee/Bradford 001 001 0 — 2 5 6

B-R – Kylee Whiting (WP) (CG, 13K, BB) and Sydney Faulkner.

D/B – Morgan Sutryk (LP) (5K, 2BB), Adalyn Tham (7) (K) and Korrin Yeoman.