By Andy Walter

DOVER — Gary Kennard and Larry Blanchfield know each other pretty well.
The two men have coached travel softball together.

So when Kennard’s Camden-Wyoming all-stars met Blanchfield’s Smyrna-Clayton squad for the Senior League District I title Monday night, they knew the winner would probably have to score a lot of runs.

“We’ve been walking the entire week,” said Kennard. “We were like, ‘It’s going to come down to who hits more and who doesn’t make that costly error.’”

Sure enough, the two teams combined for 54 runs and 54 hits in a 14-inning doubleheader that lasted more than five-and-a-half hours.

But, when the dust settled, it was Camden-Wyoming that won the championship, beating Smyrna-Clayton Little Lass 17-15 and 13-9 in Little League’s softball division for 14-16 years olds.

After falling to Smyrna-Clayton, 20-9, earlier in the tournament, Camden-Wyoming needed to win twice on Monday.

“It literally had me on the edge of my seat,” Kennard said with a laugh. “It was very tense.”

Camden-Wyoming’s reward for taking the title is a berth in this weekend’s two-team state tournament. The District I champions face New Castle-Suburban in a best-of-three series at Suburban.

In order to earn that berth, though, Camden-Wyoming had to survive a couple dramatic seventh innings on Monday.

In the opener, C-W trailed 11-10 before scoring seven runs in the top of the seventh. It then had to hold on as Smyrna-Clayton rallied for four runs in the bottom of the inning.

In the second game, Smyrna-Clayton put its first two runners on base in the seventh. But shortstop Alyssa Kennard made a running catch on a pop-up behind second base and fired to first for a double play.

Pitcher Kyra Davis then fielded a line drive to get the final out and clinch the championship for C-W.

Plenty of players contributed offensively for Camden-Wyoming. In the first game, they included Keira Fendt (2 hits, 2 runs), Audrey Carroll (2 hits, 2 runs), Amiya Carpenter (1 hit, 3 runs), Amy Gaddis (1 hit, 1 run) and Brooke Turner (1 hit).

Pitcher Alyssa Kennard struck out six and scored three runs.

Smyrna-Clayton was paced by Kailey Parramore (triple, 2 runs), Gabby Ogden (double) and Cheyenne Silves (double) while Jordan Fletcher and Izzy Mancini had multiple hits.

In the nightcap, Camden-Wyoming was led by Kyla Davis (1 hit, 2 runs), Samantha Wilson (2 hits, 1 run), Ciara Maldonado (2 hits, 1 run), Maddie Wood (1 hit) and Ally McLellan (1 run). Carroll caught all 14 innings for C-W.

For Smyrna-Clayton in the second game, Parramore went 3-for-3 with an RBI while Fletcher also drove in a run as S-C took a 3-0 lead.

Gary Kennard said his players knew winning two games wasn’t going to be easy.

“After we got about three-quarters through the first game, they realized they had the skill level to continue doing what they needed to do,” he said. “Smyrna is a very well-coached team with very good players.”

If Camden-Wyoming is going to win the state tourney, it will have to get through some more long days this weekend. Many of the team members will be playing in travel-ball games before Saturday’s 7 p.m. Senior League contest.

But Kennard said his players are excited about the opportunity — especially since the Senior League World Series is being held at Lower Sussex in Roxana. The Eastern Regionals are in Worcester, Massachusetts

“They’re looking forward to it,” he said. “Their mindset is to come back home and play in the World Series back here in Delaware.

“I would say at least eight of the girls that are with me, we started playing travel ball at 12U. They are really good kids. The majority of them have played together for a long period of time.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 302-741-8227 or walter@iniusa.org.
Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.