MURFREESBORO – Sale Creek won twice in Class A softball on Thursday while Central suffered its first loss in the Class AA division of the state softball tournament being played at the Starplex here.
Faced with overcast skies and a nagging wind on an unusually cold spring day, Sale Creek had to battle its way back through the loser’s bracket after losing 6-1 to the Forrest Lady Rockets on Wednesday.
The Lady Panthers did exactly that as they won twice to stay alive, beating East Robertson by a 5-3 final in the first game before beating Adamsville for the second time this week, the last time a 12-2 whipping after winning by 1-0 on Tuesday afternoon.
Forrest advanced with a 6-4 win over Knoxville Grace, so the Lady Rams will meet Sale Creek on Friday morning at 9 with the winner getting another shot at Forrest.
“We were a little sluggish at first, but were able to finally pull out the first one, but we broke loose in the second one,” said Sale Creek coach Clifford Kirk after his team had improved to 23-14 with Thursday’s two wins.
“We just need to win three more games on Friday, but we’re going places no Sale Creek team has ever gone before. Each game is much bigger than these girls realize, but I keep telling them that it isn’t over just yet. When it’s over, I’ll still be really proud of these girls, no matter if we win or lose.
“I think it’s neat that we have a team still alive in every classification. That says something about softball in Chattanooga,” the veteran coach laughed.
Sale Creek trailed East Robertson 2-1 after three innings, but came back to win with two runs in the fifth and the two winning runs in the seventh.
Sydney Poe had three of Sale Creek’s 11 hits while Taylor Day, McKenna Morgan and Kaleigh Cooper all had two each. Cooper also had three runs batted in while Morgan was the winning pitcher.
Then in the run away against the Lady Cardinals, Morgan had three hits, including a double and three RBIs while Kristen Sharp and Madysun Steele had two each. Mary Vandergriff only had one hit, but she and Sharp both drove in two runs.
Morgan was again the winning pitcher after allowing four hits and no walks in five innings. She finished with three strikeouts.
While Sale Creek was working its way back through the Class A bracket, Central ran into a rock wall in the form of the Greeneville Lady Greene Devils.
Central had been slugging home runs like nobody’s business, but the shoe was on the other foot as Greeneville won with two solo shots, both coming in the fifth inning with two outs.
Winning pitcher Jordan Fortel had the first one while teammate Hope Ottinger followed with the second.
“That was a tough one,” said Central coach LeeAnne Shurette later.
“Brooke Parrott pitched a great game. We came back and loaded the bases, but the inning ended on somewhat of a controversial play and that was pretty disheartening as that killed our rally.
“They had a good pitcher who we couldn’t catch up to, but we just hope we can win in the morning and get another shot at them,” the coach nodded.
Greeneville finished with five hits, including three by Fortel, while Central was limited to four singles, two by Kaili Crawley and one each by Samantha Scott and Emma Beach.
Central is now 22-15 following Thursday's loss.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)