Wewa edges Liberty 1-0 for district title
It was a game for the ages.
In a classic pitcher’s duel between Wewa’s Haley Guffey and Liberty’s Lauren Grantham, it took the Wewa Gators 10 innings to defeat the Liberty County Bulldogs and once again claim the 1A District 4 title.
Despite having runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, the Gators failed to score until third baseman Ashley Thompson’s second hit of the game sent catcher Morgan Mayhann racing home from second base for the lone run of the marathon contest in the bottom of the 10th.
“I was full speed” coming around third, said Morgan Mayhann. “They usually call me slow, but I’ve never run that fast before.”
Although allowing three hits, including a two-out triple to leadoff batter Elizabeth “Sister” Arnold in the fifth, and issuing three walks, Guffey kept the Gators in the game with her 15 strikeouts, increasing her state-leading total to 282 in 158 innings.
“The defense really had my back tonight,” said Guffey. “They played great.”
Defensively, left fielder Savana Mayhann and shortstop Katie Shealy both rose to the occasion with sparkling gems in the field.
Mayhann made six fly ball outs, while Shealy had two assists and three putouts, including two consecutive diving plays in the top of the eighth to stymie any potential Bulldog rally.
Both Wewa, now 19-5, and Liberty County, 15-13, await the FHSAA’s decisions about their next opponents, as do the Franklin County Seahawks, who lost 8-1 on Tuesday night to the Bulldogs.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.