Second-seeded East Hamilton shocked No. 1-seeded Chattanooga Central, 5-4, on Wednesday night in the District 6-AA softball winners bracket final at Warner Park.
The victory gave East Hamilton, coached by first-year coach and former Soddy-Daisy standout Cara Stiles, a berth in the Region 3 tournament next week. Stiles coached at Rhea County last year.
Tonight's schedule: 5:30 -- Central vs. East Ridge, losers bracket final; 7 -- Central-East Ridge winner vs. East Hamilton, championship; 8:30 -- If necessary.
East Hamilton scored four runs in the first two innings off Central ace Shelby Willard. Central then responed with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.
In the top of the seventh, Taylor Harris singled for East Hamilton. Amber Phillips singled and Harris scored when the ball got away in right field.
Phillips with 3-for-4 for East Hamilton with two RBI. McKenzie Mayes, Kelsey Payne and Harris had two hits each for the Lady Hurricanes. Payne had a single, double and RBI, Harris had one RBI and Phillips had two RBI.
Hannah Powell had a two-run single in the sixth for Central and Chastity Ainslie's two-run home run tied the game at 4.
Mariah Walshe picked up the win for East Hamilton, giving up hits and striking out one. Willard gave up nine hits for Central and struck out four.
"The girls played one of their best games in a while,'' Stiles said. "They each did exactly what they were supposed to do. I'm very proud of them.''
LINESCORE
East Hamilton...................310 000 1 -- 5 9 2
Central...............................000 004 0 -- 4 6 1
Walshe and Phillips; Willard and Powell.
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)