Central's Parrott Throttles Ooltewah With 1-Hit Shutout

Gill's 2-Run Double Gives Lady Pounders 2-0 Victory

  • Monday, March 27, 2017
  • Larry Fleming
Central's Brooke Parrott (4-0) fired a one-hit shutout -- the hit was a wind-blown popup in the  third inning -- on Monday as the Lady Pounders toppled Ooltewah 2-0. Parrott struck out eight, including six straight in one stretch.
Central's Brooke Parrott (4-0) fired a one-hit shutout -- the hit was a wind-blown popup in the third inning -- on Monday as the Lady Pounders toppled Ooltewah 2-0. Parrott struck out eight, including six straight in one stretch.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Ooltewah looked like it was still on spring break.

Central was sharp, Brooke Parrott dazzling, Mikayla Gill swung the bat well and the Lady Pounders played like an unbeaten, once-tied ballclub.

Parrott threw a one-hit shutout – the hit was a wind-blown pop on the infield – and Gill slapped a two-run double off Kayla Boseman to right-center field in the third inning and the Lady Pounders notched a 2-0 non-district softball victory Monday at Jim Lovell Field.

“I was excited to see Brooke on top of her game,” Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said after the Lady Pounders improved to 4-0-1 on the season.

“We’ve had quite a bit of time off over spring break, but she was firing on all cylinders. He pitches were moving and she was up to the challenge.”

The game was stopped in the top of the sixth by lightning and rain, but if the game had gone the full seven innings there was no real indication the Lady Owls would have gotten to Parrott and avoided the shutout.

“I knew Ooltewah was a good team and I know a lot of their girls,” Parrott said. “I knew I had to come ready and make sure my pitches were working. I felt like our team came together and got some hits we did what we needed to score some runs.”

Parrott’s pitches were consistently befuddling the Lady Owls, who had previously beaten Kingston 3-2 and Anderson County 18-0 before taking nine days off for spring break.

Parrott retired the first eight and struck out six in a row in that impressive stretch. Tiera Lemon, batting leadoff, flied out to center and Madalyn Mills popped up a bunt that Central third baseman Kayla Henderson stretched to catch for the second out in the Lady Owls’ third inning.

Addy Keylon popped up a pitch from Parrott and shortstop Janara Smith had a bead on the ball, but the strong wind blowing from home straight out to center field took the ball behind Smith, who could not recover to make the play. Parrott struck out Lemon to end the mild scoring threat.

That started a string of seven straight outs by Parrott against the Lady Owls (2-1).

Including Monday’s outing, Parrott has recorded 61 strikeouts in five games. She has pitched all five games this season and posted four shutouts.

With Parrott on the mound the Lady Pounders beat Tyner 15-0, Silverdale 2-1 in nine innings, Bearden 7-0 and Ooltewah 2-0. She had 22 strikeouts against Silverdale and threw six innings in a scoreless tie against Arlington.

Central has outscored its five opponents 26-1.

“Before we took the break Brooke had 54 strikeouts in four games,” Shurette said. “I was hoping going into (Monday’s) game we were going to see more of that. She was really strong and I was proud that we scratched out a couple of runs.”

It’s not like the Lady Pounders blasted Boseman pitches all over the ballpark. Sylvester’s ground single to center and Gill’s game-winning double to right-center were the only balls Central got past the infield.

But the Lady Pounders’ two bunts, neither of which rolled more than 10 feet from home plate, turned into big base hits before Gill’s heroics at the plate.

“Mikayla stepped up and capitalized when we had runners in scoring position and that’s what we needed,” Shurette said. “She also stepped up in scoring situations when we played in a JV tournament last weekend.”

Ooltewah coach Jon Massey was not far less enthused about his team’s performance.

“It was obvious we were not ready to play today,” Massey said. “That’s my problem. That won’t happen anymore and I’m not trying to take anything from Brooke. She was throwing well. But we can’t take eight-nine days off and play like that against Central because they’ve got enough talent to beat your brains in.”

Boseman was roughed up for five hits, including back-to-back bunts by Parrott and Jada Taylor ahead of Gill’s clutch line shot that fell just out of the reach of Lady Owls right fielder Jadyn Raschke.

Gill added a leadoff single in the sixth, but was wiped out when Kerri Sylvester’s grounder was turned into a force out at second. Sylvester had the other Central hit, a single up the middle in the second inning.

Boseman finished with 10 strikeouts.

The Lady Owls (2-1) got only two balls out of the infield, both fly-ball outs to center fielder Cassidy Simms.

“I didn’t pitch my best and we weren’t hitting the ball or making routine plays on defense,” Boseman said. “We’ll be ready (Tuesday) when we have a big game at Walker Valley. We’ll come back ready to execute and play ball with a good mindset.”

Said Massey, “These girls better get over this in a hurry or we’ll come back from Walker Valley two-two. This score should have been worse. Central did a good job bunting and we missed about five bunts. Not only did we not get them down, we missed a bunt sign and we’ve only used our bunt sign for four years.”

BOXSCORE

Central                       002 000– 2 5 0

Ooltewah                   000 00x – 0 1 0

Parrott and Sylvester; Boseman and Mills.

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

Ooltewah's MaxPrep All-American Kayla Boseman gave up five hits and two earned runs Monday in the Lady Owls' 2-0 loss to Central in a non-district game at Ooltewah High. Boseman had nine strikeouts.
Ooltewah's MaxPrep All-American Kayla Boseman gave up five hits and two earned runs Monday in the Lady Owls' 2-0 loss to Central in a non-district game at Ooltewah High. Boseman had nine strikeouts.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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