SOFTBALL: Eagles rally past JCCHS behind Silvers’ pitching

Donnie Byrom decided to take a gamble.
With his team trailing Jackson County 1-0 in the top of the first inning with the bases loaded and no outs — and staring at a potential fourth consecutive loss — the East Jackson coach lifted starter Gracie Wilber and inserted a relatively unknown Kayla Silvers, who’d never dressed out with the varsity.
The young hurler made sure her coach didn’t regret the decision.
Silvers, a sophomore, delivered seven innings of relief, allowing just five hits as East Jackson (10-9, 3-5) rallied for a 5-4 win Thursday at home over rival Jackson County, which entered last week ranked No. 1 in Class AAA by MaxPreps.
“In the first inning, things weren’t going our way, and I just decided to roll the dice with her,” Byrom said, “and she pitched the game of her life.”
Silvers surrendered just one run in her lengthy relief appearance. The other three were charged to Wilber.
“She (Silvers) hit her spot 99 percent of the time the whole game, and allowed me to have an impact calling pitches,” Byrom said.
East Jackson trailed 3-1 after the first inning and 4-1 after the second, but Silvers posted five straight scoreless innings as the Eagles mounted a comeback. An infield single in the bottom of the six from Lauren Barrett tied the game 4-4, and a bases-loaded walk from Natalie Vargo later in the inning put East Jackson ahead as the Eagles earned their third region win.
“It was a team effort,” Byrom said. “We had a lot of people executing our philosophy that got us those runs. We steal one run at a time with an aggressive baserunning philosophy, and that paid off.”
Bailey Wilber led East Jackson at the plate, going 3-for-3 with an RBI after having had limited varsity at-bats through her junior season.
“We put her in the nine-hole today, and she went 3-for-3,” Byrom said.
The coach said that Silvers and Wilber came through for their more seasoned teammates.
“We’ve had certain players that have been around that you expect big things of,” Byrom said. “But those were two girls that no one expected anything of that came out here (Thursday) and gave these seniors a great feeling — being able to beat Jackson County on their home field their last game.”
For the rest of this story, see the Sept. 12 edition of The Jackson Herald.