Rogers-Led Meigs Clips Marion, 5-1, For Shot At State Class A Softball Title

Lady Tigers Storm Thriving On Winning In Uncharted Territory

  • Friday, May 27, 2016
  • Larry Fleming
Highly-touted Meigs County pitcher Ashley Rogers unleashes a pitch against Marion County in a 5-1 victory on Thursday in the TSSAA Class A state softball tournament in Murfreesboro. Rogers struck out 16 and has 47 in three tourney games. Meigs will play for the championship on Friday.
Highly-touted Meigs County pitcher Ashley Rogers unleashes a pitch against Marion County in a 5-1 victory on Thursday in the TSSAA Class A state softball tournament in Murfreesboro. Rogers struck out 16 and has 47 in three tourney games. Meigs will play for the championship on Friday.
photo by Dennis Norwood

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – On its fourth trip to the TSSAA Class A state softball tournament, Meigs County finally won a game.

Then, the Lady Tigers won again. And again.

That third win, a 5-1 decision over Marion County on Thursday’s in the winner’s bracket final at Starplex landed the Lady Tigers in Friday’s championship game at 2 p.m. local time.

“Yeah, this is our fourth trip over here and I came with an 0-6 record,” Meigs County coach Jeff Davis said. “My record’s looking a little bit better now at 3-6.

“I knew if we got past that first game (a 3-1 win over Silverdale) that we had a good chance to get to this point. Tonight was a crapshoot.”

The Lady Tigers (39-3) won’t know their title game opponent until Silverdale (40-4) and Marion County (36-8) determine the loser’s bracket winner Friday at 9 a.m. local time.

No matter the opponent, the Lady Tigers have a workhorse on their side.

Ashley Rogers, a strong-armed sophomore who has won all three games in this tournament, was once again a formidable obstacle to Marion County’s chances of winning.

The University of Tennessee commitment struck out 16 Lady Warriors and has 47 strikeouts in three tournament games. The tournament record for strikeouts in 72 held by David Lipscomb’s Megan Rhodes and set in 2004.

The seven-inning record is 20, shared by Lexington’s Cassie Smith (2001) and Ashton Edwards (2013). The extra inning mark is 24 – Rhodes (2002) and Gretchen Pugh of Maryville (2003).

“(Marion County) is a very disciplined team,” said Rogers, who had 16 and 15 strikeouts in her other two starts. “The strike zone was pretty tight and I didn’t get a lot of pitches I thought I should have.

“But we got the win. We’ve got one more obstacle left.”

Rogers had nine strikeouts through four innings and allowed just three hits.

Over the final three, she added seven more and gave up just two more hits, both in the seventh inning when the Lady Warriors scored their  only run – it was unearned – on Savannah Thomas’ infield single that scored Haley Baker, who reached base when Lindsey Ward dropped a fly ball in left field.

But Davis wasn’t concerned at all about that run or the outfield miscue.

“They had to score five runs,” he said, “so I wasn’t worried about the one. Ashley hadn’t given up five runs in the same inning this year. We just wanted three outs in the last inning.”

After Baker got on base and Chloe Campbell singled to right, Rogers whiffed Erin O’Leary. Thomas then delivered her run-scoring hit and Rogers responded by striking out Haley Frye Hamilton – for the third time – and Brianna Havner – a second time – to end the game.

When the final out was recorded, the large Meigs County contingent of fans had a boisterous congratulatory message for the Lady Tigers.

Well done, girls.

“Half the town (Decatur) was here tonight,” Davis said. “This means a lot to our program to reach the championship game. We were here in 2010, 2013 and 2015. We’re going to enjoy this win, sleep in (Friday morning) and get back over here and try to win it all.”

The Lady Tigers got to Marion County senior starting pitcher, Taylor Roberts, in the third inning with three runs.

Number nine hitter, senior right-fielder Morgan Knox, beat out a bunt single and went to third on sophomore shortstop Kaylie Moore’s single to right. Senior second baseman Kaley Meadows grounded out and Knox raced home with the game’s first run.

Moore went to third on that play and scored on a passed ball.

With two out junior third baseman flied out to center and Rogers helped her own cause with a run-scoring single to left field.

Ward singled to left and both runners moved up an extra base on an error by Havner in left field, but senior Olivia Johnson flied out to right ending the inning.

An inning later, junior first baseman Alyson Crowder, the number eight hitter, led off with a single and Knox beat out a bunt single. Moore’s sacrifice put runners at second and third.

Crowder scored on Meadows’ single and Reed’s sacrifice fly pushed Knox across with the Lady Tigers’ fifth run.

“Obviously, we’ve never been at this point before, but I thought the bottom or our order had a lot of good run production tonight,” Davis said.

Crowder and Knox scored three of the five runs and banged out three of the team’s 11 hits.

Ward, batting sixth, had two hits, including a leadoff double in the fifth.

Add the runs scored by Moore and Reed, Rogers had more than enough support to notch another impressive victory.

Rogers didn’t walk a batter and threw 118 pitches, 86 for strikes.

The three Marion County pitchers – Roberts, Baker and Harlie Jordan – collectively threw 134 pitches with 83 hitting the strike zone.

Silverdale kept its hopes alive by posting two victories during the day. The Lady Seahawks knocked off Huntingdon, 16-3, and came back in the afternoon to throttle Midway, 12-2, enabling coach Tim Couch’s squad to move within one win of reaching title round.

“Huntingdon was a good team,” Couch said. “We watched them (Wednesday) and they’re solid. Our girls knew the situation. It was win or go home, but we didn’t talk a lot about that. We talked about playing good ball.”

After spotting Huntingdon a run in the first, Silverdale put up 10 in the bottom of the inning, quickly turning the game into a blowout.

Kaili Crawley went 2 for 4, including a third-inning grand slam and added a fifth RBI to pace the Lady Seahawks’ 17-hit attack.

Shelby Duggard had four singles in four at-bats and drove in two runs while Taylor Moran also had two hits and scored three runs. She also pitched a five-inning complete game, throwing 70 pitches and 49 strikes.

In beating Midway, Silverdale broke loose with a six-run first inning powered by Kaili Crawley’s three-run homer. Moran went 4 for 5 with two RBIs and scored twice. Ali Birchfield was also 4 for 5 and scored two runs.

Emily Harkleroad scattered six hits over six innings, gave up both Midway runs and struck out five and walked one and picked up the win. She threw 102 pitches, 71 for strikes.

                                                                                                                                                                  Boxscores

Meigs County                    003 200 0 – 5 11 1

Marion County                 000 000 1 – 1 5 2

Rogers and Reed; Roberts, Baker (4), Jordan (5) and Thomas.

Huntingdon                       100 02 – 3 4 6

Silverdale                           (10)14 1x – 16 17 1

Hayes and Culley; Duggard and Turner.

Midway                               100 001 – 2 6 5

Silverdale                           621 012 – 12 17 0

Kelley, Hall (3) and Higgins; Harkleroad and Turner.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

Marion County's Chloe Campbell slides safely into third base after a wild pitch in the second inning against Meigs County on Thursday. Lady Tigers third baseman Madison Crabtree tries to get a handle on the ball bouncing nearby.
Marion County's Chloe Campbell slides safely into third base after a wild pitch in the second inning against Meigs County on Thursday. Lady Tigers third baseman Madison Crabtree tries to get a handle on the ball bouncing nearby.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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