GAME 1 - 10/16 vs Allatoona

The Cambridge Lady Bears traveled to Allatoona High School on Wednesday Oct. 16th for their opening game in the State's Top 32 Team Tournament.  

The Bears come is as the #4 seed in their Region against a very talented Allatoona Buccaneer team, who was the #1 seed in their Region.  Before the excitement could get kicked into gear, the Bear's 3rd batter of the game, Lily Valeo, launched a drive over the Left Field fence to get the Buc's attention, and put the Bears up 1-0 in the Top half of the 1st.  But the Bucs would bounce back in the bottom of the 1st with some small ball play to tie the game.  

The Bears lit it up in the 3rd with Lily Valeo's second shot to the fence followed by Maria Lay's long deep shot to center .  This, and a costly error by the Bucs allowed the Bears  to put up 4 runs in the Top of the 4th.  The Bucs again responded with a 2-run homer, and a couple of walks to in the bottom half to make things interesting at 5-4 headed into the 5th.  The excitement would build in a scoreless 5th and 6th innings with batters from both teams moving base runners around, but determined defenses would shut things down.  

Then in a very tensed 7th inning, the Bucs put two runners on base for what appeared to be the winning runs, but Keara Napoli managed to put back to back strikeouts together sealing a 5-4 win in Game 1 for the Lady Bears.

GAME 2 -10/16 vs Allatoona

In game 2 of the Sectional Playoffs at Allatoona High School on Wednesday, the Allatoona Lady Buccaneers were already stunned by a 1-run Game 1 loss to the Cambridge Bears, and determined to knot the series up.  

The Bears showed some poise when Diggy Dixon snagged a very hot line drive fly in the first, followed by the hottest bat of the day, Lily Valeo, as she drove another long ball out to the left field fence for a double.  However, the Bucs shut the threat down, and put up 2 runs in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd with help from a Bear's error to take a 3-0 lead after 3 innings.  The Bucs would not let up. And with base hits and fine base running, put up 2 additional runs in the 5th, and stretched their lead to 5-0 after 5 innings.  

What appeared to be a Bear thrashing by the Bucs was suddenly reversed in the bottom of the 6th inning.  Clutch hits from Keara Napoli, and a deep shot to left field by Diggy Dixon started the Lady Bears rally.  The Bears put up a huge 5-run 5th inning including a very close play at the plate by a sliding Diggy Dixon to tie the game up at 5.  

After a scoreless 6th inning by both teams, the 7th inning would prove to be the most exciting inning of the season for the Lady Bears.  A sore and injured Keara Napoli, who had thrown over 250 pitches already on the night, came back to the mound after getting help from Mariah Kubik, to shut the down the Bucs in the Top half of the 7th.  Then, Keara would start another rally in the bottom of the 7th with a line drive to left field, followed by a big shot double to center field by Abigail Wilson to put runners at 2nd and 3rd.  The Bucs elected to walk to Lauren Stewart to load the bases and create the force out at home.  It worked for the next out, but on what seemed to be another routine force out at the plate, a ball in the dirt slipped out of the catcher's glove, and the Lady Bears slid into home with the win, and closed out the Buccaneers.  

What a tremendous win for the Cambridge Bears organization.  The Lady Bears now advance to the "Sweet 16", and will travel to Loganville on October 23rd for another best of 3 games against the Loganville Lady Red Devils.

Go Bears!