WOODRUFF — It was appropriate the wild ebb and flow of Wednesday’s 3A playoff elimination game between Woodruff and Crescent carried beyond seven innings before finally ending in dramatic fashion.

Woodruff’s Madison Jacobi delivered a one-out, walk-off, RBI single to right field that scored Haley Beck in the eighth inning for a 7-6 victory. The Wolverines advance to the upper state championship starting Friday at Palmetto where they must win twice with the host needing only one victory. Palmetto earlier knocked Woodruff into the loser’s bracket with a 3-0 win.

“That’s one great program over there in Crescent,” Woodruff coach Will Lanford said. “That’s an awesome job by our girls and the first time in school history we’ve beaten Crescent. They’re the greatest softball program in the history of the state and just a great win by our program because this never happened before.”

Crescent has won a state record 19 state championships dating back to 1982. The Tigers eliminated Woodruff in last year’s upper state championship, sweeping a doubleheader from the Wolverines who only needed one win to play for a state title. Crescent would lose 2 of 3 to Hanahan in the 3A finals.

Crescent stranded runners on second and third in the top of the eighth after pitcher Olivia Patton induced a harmless pop-up to shortstop Beck to end the frame. Beck then led off the bottom half with a sharp single to left before Patton walked. Summer Brown moved the runners up with a perfect bunt and Jacobi ended all the drama.

Both teams had a chance to end the game in regulation in the seventh inning, but both halves ended via double play. Crescent had runners on first and second with one out when third-baseman Brooklyn McElrath darted in and made a diving stab of a pop-up in front of home plate before doubling the runner off second base.



Woodruff then put the first two on in its half of the seventh on an error and a walk. Two consecutive fly-outs came next, the latter also resulting in a runner being thrown out at third trying to tag up, to end the inning.

“There was a lot of momentum shifts both ways and I told our players you might make a bad play, we might fail, but it’s whoever comes back from that moment of failure and we did it enough to get the job done,” Lanford said. “At this point you just take them one at a time, win and advance, and hopefully this momentum carries on into the first game against Palmetto.”

Madison Littlefield was Woodruff’s starting pitcher and after shutting down Crescent with the bases loaded in the top of the first, smacked a two-out, two-run homer in her first at-bat for a 2-0 lead. The Wolverines increased the advantage to 4-0 in the third on Hannah Sellars’ two-run single. Crescent got three back in the fourth before Patton relieved Littlefield with two on and two out and got out of the jam.

Crescent tied it 4-4 with a run in the fifth, but once again left the bases loaded when Patton ended the inning with a strikeout. Emerson Davis gave Crescent a 6-4 lead with a two-out, two-run homer in the sixth, but Patton blasted her own two-run shot minutes later to tie the game. Patton would finish out the game in the pitching circle to help seal the win.

“I couldn’t ask for more from Olivia,” Lanford said. “She gutted it out and did a great job. She’s been dominant all year and she did enough tonight to get us the victory so we appreciate her.”

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