There will be a couple of familiar opponents facing off at Central on Wednesday in the Region 3-AA softball while the same can be said for Silverdale's home game with the 3-A title on the line.
Central advanced on Monday with a 2-0 home win over Polk County while Red Bank had to travel to Madisonville before coming home with a satisfying 9-1 win over Sequoyah.
The Silverdale Lady Seahawks continued their winning ways with a 15-0, five-inning win over Sale Creek. Silverdale will now be at home Wednesday to face District 6 champ Marion County, which eliminated CSAS.
Central improved to 21-16 with its shutout over the Lady Wildcats.
The Lady Purple Pounders only had six hits, but they made the most of their opportunities as they scored single runs in the first and fourth innings to prevail.
Alexis Grampp singled with two outs in the first and scored when a pickoff throw sailed down the line and past the right fielder.
Then in the fourth as they held tightly to a one-run lead, Reagan Benedict ripped her third double of the game and was replaced by courtesy runner Jada Taylor, who scored on a double by Keri Sylvester.
Lexie Ainslie had Central's other hit.
Meanwhile, junior Brooke Parrott had another magnificent performance as she allowed just two hits and no walks while striking out 11.
Both of those hits by the Lady Wildcats came in the fifth inning with no outs, but Parrott didn't flinch and ended that threat with a groundout and back-to-back strikeouts.
"It was just a great effort by everyone on our team. We made some great plays defensively and Brooke had some timely strikeouts as well," said Central coach LeeAnne Shurette later.
"It's been a long day and I'm tired, but I'm so proud of these girls as they did what they needed to do to win. It was nice to play at home again and we look forward to playing Red Bank at home on Wednesday," she added.
While Central was winning a close one, it wasn't so close for Red Bank as the Lionettes scored three runs in the first inning while adding four more in the second to break open their game with Sequoyah early.
Destiny Painter and Lydia Dillard both had three hits to lead Red Bank, which finished the game with 15.
Hannah Wood, Kendall Farr and Kelsey Peden all had two hits for Red Bank while Sami Shrader added a double for the winners.
Dillard's big hit was a bases-loaded double in the second inning that completely blew the game open.
"We're one step closer to our goal of reaching the state tournament, but this puts us in the sectionals and means that we're headed in the right direction," said Red Bank coach Mandi Munn after driving home from Madisonville.
"We had a good warm-up, so I just reminded them of how hard they had worked up to this point and told them to just go out and have fun. All of the work is starting to pay off," Munn added.
Wood was the winning pitcher after allowing just four hits. She also had four strikeouts and four walks.
Sequoyah ends its season at 18-12.
The Silverdale Lady Seahawks had no problem eliminating Sale Creek as the hostesses had four runs in the first and seven in the second before finishing with four in the fourth.
Silverdale pounded out 16 hits, including home runs from Taylor Moran and Shelby Duggard.
Meanwhile, Emily Harkleroad was near perfect as she allowed just two hits and no walks while striking out two.
Harkleroad was the only Siliverdale player with three hits, including two doubles. Ali Birchfield, Moran and Duggard all had two hits apiece. Moran finished with five RBIs, including the three-run homer, while Duggard's round tripper was a solo shot.
"We played well again today, but if we keep playing like we have been, we can expect good things to happen," said Silverdale coach Tim Couch after his team had improved to 35-3.
"We played Marion twice this year and split with them, so we know they have a fine team. I think we'll be fine, but we can breathe a little after today's game as that gives us at least two more, but we have nothing to lose at this point," Couch added.
Sale Creek's season ends at 25-17.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)