MURFREESBORO – There are times when one run simply isn’t enough.
Such was the case here at McKnight Field No. 3 on Tuesday afternoon when the Central Lady Pounders faced the Creek Wood Lady Red Hawks in the opening game of the state softball tournament.
The Lady Pounders had won a lot of games this year with one run or maybe two as they took advantage of senior pitcher Brooke Parrott’s ability to keep the other team from scoring.
Central scored its one run in the first inning and that 1-0 lead stood tall for four innings, but the Lady Red Hawks broke through with three runs in the fifth and added three more in the seventh to win the opening game.
Parrott, a stellar performer who averages more than two strikeouts per inning, recorded her 400th K of the season, but on a day when every pitch counted and the mistakes made seemed to multiply, it just wasn’t the best day for the scrappy blonde who has already committed to play for Tennessee Tech next fall.
Third baseman Ina Henderson led off the bottom of the first for Central by earning a walk and advanced to second an out later when Parrott reached on a bunt single. Tatum Morgan’s RBI-single with two outs allowed Henderson to score and that was the only run for the first four innings.
The fifth inning was a totally different story.
Samantha England led off for the Lady Red Hawks with a double and went to third when a fly to center field from Kensli Douthit was dropped. Analeigh Corsey then put her team ahead with a two-run triple into the corner in right.
Jase Jackson then made it 3-1 when her single allowed Corsey to score.
It was still anybody’s game at that point, but Central’s bats remained relatively quiet when they were retired in order in the bottom of that inning.
Creek Wood then decided to play long ball in the seventh.
Douthit extended the lead to 4-1 with a solo homer to right to lead things off while winning pitcher Bailey Griffith poked a two-run homer to dead center to score Coursey, who had reached on another Central error.
Henderson led off the Central seventh with a single and Kerri Sylvester reached when she got plunked in the ankle with a pitch, but Griffith then got three straight pops to the infield to put the game away.
Central coach LeeAnne Shurette had really been excited with the way her team had been playing in recent weeks and the Lady Pounder bats were finally starting to produce, but the veteran coach was anything but happy when this one en
“We were the dominant team for most of the game, but we just let it go there at the end,” Shurette said after her team had dropped to 28-10-1 for the season.
“For some strange reason, we let them get back in the game. We didn’t’ have anyone to step up to get a big hit with runners in scoring position and I was really disappointed in the play of our outfield,” she said before speaking to her team afterward.
Creek Wood coach Nancy Johnson was just proud of her team for not giving up hope in the early innings when it looked like they might not score.
“We never panicked and we just kept battling, but we just have to stay focused and try to keep winning,” she said after her team improved to 30-13.
“We scored more runs today than we have in the last three games combined and I was really proud of the way Bailey Griffith. She’s the only junior we have and there are no seniors, so she stepped up and did a fine job for us today,” Johnson added.
Coursey was the only Creek Wood player with two hits as she finished with two runs scored and two runs driven in. Griffith also had two RBIs with her late homer.
Parrott allowed six runs on seven hits while striking out nine and walking two.
Griffith limited Central to the one early run on just five hits. She also had 13 strikeouts and three walks and the one hit batter.
Cassidy Simms joined Henderson, Sylvester, Parrott and Morgan as Lady Pounders with one hit apiece.
Central returns to action on Wednesday with a losers bracket game at 11:30 (CST) against Dyersburg, which lost 10-0 to defending state champ CAK.
CREEK WOOD 000 030 3 – 6 7 1
CENTRAL 100 000 0 – 1 5 2
Griffith and Woodard; Parrott and Sylvester.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)