Central's Amanda Roy connects with a pitch against Dyersburg Tuesday afternoon in the Class AA state tournament in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Roy's hit went for an RBI single and a game winner as the Lady Pounders edged the Lady Trojans 1-0 to stay alive in Spring Fling action.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO – To make a long story short, Central’s Brooke Parrott simply wasn’t ready for a brilliant high school softball career to end.
Pitching like there was no tomorrow – that really would have been the case had the Lady Pounders lost – Parrott was her usual outstanding self as she fired a one-hitter to lead her team to a heart-stopping 1-0 victory over Dyersburg in a losers bracket game in the Class AA division of the TSSAA state tournament being played at the Starplex Field No. 2 late Wednesday afternoon.
With the win, Central improves to 29-10-1 for the season and awaits the loser of the McNairy Central-Greenbrier game. It’s hard to tell when either of those games will be played as off-and-on rain played havoc with the tournament schedule.
Dyersburg catcher Sarah Putman had a one-out single in the second, but that was the only base runner of the game for the Lady Trojans as Parrott retired the final 20 hitters she faced.
And has been the case so many times this spring, one run was all she needed and one run was all she got.
But that one run was aplenty at a real crossroad in Central’s season.
Central catcher Kerri Sylvester, one of two Lady Pounders with two hits in the game, led off the Central fourth with her second single. Pinch runner Gracee Webb was sacrificed to second by Tatum Morgan while a groundout to short by Mikayla Gill sent Webb to third.
Then on the very first pitch, second baseman Amanda Roy slapped a single up the middle to drive in Webb with the only run of the game.
“I knew that I had to do what I could to get that run home with Gracee on third. I got a fastball right down the middle and hit it on the nose,” Roy explained later.
Parrott admitted that her heart was a little low following Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to Creek Wood, but she wasn’t about to let that ruin her tournament or her season.
“It got to be a little nerve-racking there at the end, but I was confident in our chances today,” Parrott nodded.
“The umpire yesterday was squeezing the strike zone and I had to throw more pitches down the middle, but I knew I had to mix it up today and felt like that’s what I did. Even with one run, I felt good as my teammates were playing solid defense behind me,” Parrott added.
Central coach LeeAnne Shurette has gotten used to watching sensational pitching performances from her ace right-hander. She was just glad that her teammates were there to support her.
“I thought we hit the ball well today and I was much happier with our overall effort,” Shurette said later.
“We had a long talk before today’s game and I told them that we wanted to give everything we had and to hold nothing back. We simply didn’t want to beat ourselves, but Brooke pitched another outstanding game and simply stayed with her game plan.
“I also feel like our team pulled together after what I thought was a terrible performance yesterday. The good news is that we’re still alive and we still have a shot. We’ll just have to see what happens,” the veteran coach concluded.
Dyersburg’s Katlyn Canada was the losing pitcher after allowing the one run on seven hits. She also had a pair of strikeouts and no walks.
Parrott upped her season strikeout to 411 with 10 on Wednesday.
Cassidy Simms and Sylvester both had two hits for Central while Janara Smith had a double. Jada Taylor and Roy had the other singles.
Dyersburg ends its season at 25-14.
CENTRAL 000 100 0 – 1 7 0
DYERSBURG 000 000 0 – 0 1 0
Parrott and Sylvester; Canada and Putman.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)