Seahawks walk it off against Red Wolves on Lowe’s two-run blast

Down to the final out and trailing 5-4, the Sussex Academy softball team gifted Carson Gesuero with the type of senior game she wanted when junior Ryan Lowe walloped her second career home run to walk it off against Conrad May 10.

“She hit the crap out of that ball; I couldn't have asked for a better way to end the game,” Gesuero said. “I didn't want a boring game; I didn't want a senior game where we would just slaughter them; I wanted a fun game.”

Sussex Academy took an early 2-0 lead in the second, but Conrad tied things up in the third inning before adding a run in both the fourth and fifth innings to go up 4-2. The Seahawks tied the game in the bottom of the sixth before Conrad went up 5-4. A pressing offense was searching for hard contact, but not quite finding it in the first six innings. 

With Danica Bergh at second base and the second out occurring on the play at the plate, Sussex Academy was down to its last gasp with Lowe at the plate.

“They never quit; we're not done until the last out and they just battle,” said coach Gerald Jester. “They've been doing it all season.”

“I went up there with two outs with the mindset of ‘base hit, right side,’ and then got lucky,” Lowe said. “I knew I hit it pretty hard.”

As her teammates swarmed her at home plate, the party centered around Lowe, but the win was a three-phase, team effort that began with their senior in the circle.

“I felt the nerves out there, so I don't feel like I performed my best, but my teammates had my back, hitting the ball and making great plays,” Gesuero said. “I couldn't have asked for a better game.”

“Carson keeps us in every game,” Jester said. “That's all I ask.”

While Gesuero led the defense, Bergh was the leader of the offense with three hits and two runs scored. Fellow eighth-grader Emma Orlen also scored two runs and had two hits, driving in one. Audrey Snyder drove in one run on one of her two hits.

The 12-5 Seahawks wrap up the regular season Thursday, May 15, with an away trip to powerhouse Caravel Academy that could serve as a measuring stick for the state tournament.