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Columbia's Ava Christie (5) goes to hug pitcher Harleigh Price after Price threw a perfect game against Lincoln during Monday's District 2-5A quarterfinals. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
Harleigh Price felt no pressure.
The freshman admits she didn’t even know the stakes. So, when left fielder Sakiya Merriex closed her glove for the final out in Monday’s 8-0 win over 6-seed Lincoln, the news was a pleasant surprise as the entire dugout raced out to greet her.
It was then Price finally found out she threw a perfect game to send the 3-seed Tigers to the District 2-5A semifinals.
“I honestly did not know it was a perfect game until after the last inning,” Price said. “I assumed I since I had some balls hit against me that it wasn’t going, but that’s amazing. First district game, perfect game.”
Price finished with nine strikeouts in just her second game back from a respiratory infection, which caused her to miss two games. Her outing last week against Riverside lasted just one inning as she struggled to breathe, but Price showed no signs of the illness on Monday, pitching even better as the game went on as she struck out five of the final nine Lincoln batters.
Only one ball left the infield, which was a fly ball by Olivia Hernandez to Merriex for the final out. It was the first perfect game of Price’s high school career, one that sets up a matchup against 2-seed Gainesville in the district semifinals on Tuesday.
“I think the little break I had taken really helped me come back stronger and really made me focus in on my spins and trusting my pitching,” Price said. “I’m not 100% but I feel pretty good. I’m calming down a little bit more on the mound and breathing a little bit more because I tend to get a little bit fast, but I had my team to back me up so I was a little bit calm thinking about it going in there.”
Hernandez’s fly ball made Columbia coach Cindy Dansby hold her breath though. Merriex and center fielder Luisa Taylor both came racing in toward the infield before Merriex managed to chase it down before it could drop for a bloop single.
“I was like, ‘catch the ball, catch the ball,’” Dansby said.
Merriex did, ending an efficient night for Price where she threw only 82 pitches.
“Her pitch count was low so that’s why we kept her in there,” Dansby said. “We’re obviously trying to look ahead too, but at the same time when you have a perfect game going you just have to go with it. Her pitch count was low, so we decided to leave her in there and she was on tonight.
Price had plenty of run support from her lineup, which saw Josie Raulerson finish with six RBIs on a 2-for-2 night that included a grand slam during a six-run fifth inning. Raulerson also had an RBI single in the first inning and a sac fly RBI in the third to give the Tigers (13-10) a 2-0 lead but starting pitcher Gabby Coulter kept the Trojans (6-17) in it before the wheels completely fell off in the fifth.
Coulter didn’t even record an out in the fifth before getting pulled. Addyson Sherman and Sakiya Merriex, who went 2 for 3 with three runs scored, led off with back-to-back singles and the Tigers then loaded the bases when Sherman beat a throw to third base on a ground ball by Anna Dansby.
Price then drew a walk to bring Sherman home, prompting Lincoln to pull Coulter for Mia Owens. Raulerson stepped to the plate and immediately lofted her grand slam over the left field fence to blow the game open, which allowed Dansby to breathe a sigh of relief.
Coulter was charged with six runs — five earned — on five hits and two walks. Columbia added one more run on an infield RBI single by Lillyenne Mayhew before Owens finally got Lincoln out of the inning after 12 batters.
“It was very timely,” Dansby said. “I was counting, ‘OK, it’s this inning and we only have how many runs?’ And she put that over with no outs. And you have to give credit to the people that worked on (base). The people that worked to get themselves on with no outs had timely hitting.”
Dansby admitted that Coulter’s pitching style, which was slower and included a different release, had her lineup off balance early on before finally breaking through with the big fifth inning.
“She just had a different way of pitching the ball,” Dansby said. “And they all admitted it. They were in there like, ‘what is she doing?’ We definitely need to make adjustments quicker. I feel like when we face someone with more spin and speed, we tend to adjust quicker. And it seems like we it’s someone that has a unique style, sometimes it takes us a little longer, but we come around.”
The Tigers will face a pitcher with plenty of spin and speed when they face Gainesville freshman Leanna Bourdage, who has a 0.63 ERA this season and will be one of the toughest pitchers Columbia has faced all year.
Price and company are ready though as they try and hold on to a playoff spot in Region 1-5A.
“We need to have the same energy we put up tonight and have each other’s back and continue to play game,” Price said.