Battery Creek couldn’t hold onto a late lead, as Gilbert scored two runs in the sixth inning Saturday to claim a 6-5 win in the first round of the Class 3A Lower State softball tournament.
The Indians pushed across two unearned runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to reclaim the lead after Battery Creek had rallied from a 4-1 deficit to take a 5-4 advantage.
The Dolphins grabbed an early lead on Alexis Ortiz’s sacrifice fly in the first inning, but the Indians answered with four runs against Ortiz in the bottom of the inning. Ortiz settled in and quieted Gilbert’s bats after that, and Mackenzie Young’s two-run single brought the Dolphins within 4-3 in the fourth. Journeigh Doray’s sacrifice fly tied it in the fifth, and Olivia Gee’s RBI single gave Battery Creek the lead in the top of the sixth.
Ortiz retired the first two batters in the sixth before a dropped third strike kept the inning alive, setting up a single and a two-run error that put Gilbert back on top.
The Dolphins (23-7) will host Aynor in an elimination game Monday.