The Silverdale Lady Seahawks have been down this road before.
This talented softball team won a state title in 2018 and are hoping to get another shot next week in Murfreesboro, but they will have to win one more game at home to get that opportunity.
Facing the Goodpasture Lady Cougars on Wednesday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the Division II, Class A state tournament, it was a best two-of-three games with the winner advancing and the loser planning their summer vacation.
The issue will have to be decided on Thursday afternoon after these two teams split on Wednesday, Silverdale winning the first game 7-3 and Goodpasture the second by a 7-6 final.
Wednesday’s matchup was a classic battle between two outstanding teams and the near-capacity crowd that gathered at Silverdale to watch more than got their money’s worth.
Silverdale now stands at 23-10 while Goodpasture’s record is now 30-7.
Silverdale coach Jackie Freeland knows that her team was a little down following the loss in the second game, but she’s fully confident that they will come back on Thursday to finish the job.
“Of course, we would have liked to win two, but we like to make things interesting,” she began her post-game comments with a big smile.
“We had to play a third game in Knoxville in our last round, so we know what’s at stake as tomorrow is do or die for us. I liked how we came back at the end today, but tomorrow is a new day and we have to come out with a sense of urgency as we got another chance to win and advance.
“Our crowd today was awesome and we could feel the support, but we just have to come out ready to play on Thursday,” Freeland said with confidence.
Goodpasture coach Lee Phillips has been in this business a long time and he knows what it takes to get to the next round.
“Right now, I’m just trying to find us a place to stay,” he said while his team gathered in right field for their post-game discussion.
“It wasn’t easy, but we simply refused to quit. It would have been easy for this group to give up when we were down 7-0 in the first game, but they just kept battling. Now we have seven more innings to decide if we play next week or not.
“We didn’t get off on the right foot in that first game as it’s tough to come back from such a big deficit against a good team. But we get another chance tomorrow to see what happens,” he added.
Silverdale didn’t waste any time taking charge in the first game as they put three runs on the board in the first inning.
Kennedy Stinson got things started with a leadoff single. She stole second and scored on a bunt single by Emry Masterson. It was 2-0 when Masterson scored on a play where the Lady Cougars made two errors while McCade Cooper scored on a sacrifice fly by Bentlee Stiner for a three-run edge.
Gabbie Hensley made it 5-0 with a two-run homer in the fourth while the Lady Seahawks made it 7-0 with two more scores in the fifth.
Masterson led off with an infield single before Cooper doubled to the corner in left. Masterson then scored on a grounder to second by Stiner while Cooper scooted home on a sacrifice fly to center by Skylar Sheridan.
The Lady Cougars weren’t going down without a fight and they avoided the shutout with three runs in the seventh, highlighted by a two-run homer from Madi Crocker.
Goodpasture was the home team in the second game and immediately took charge with three runs in the opening frame after the Lady Seahawks had scored once.
Tayler Ruffin had a two-run single while Crocker followed with a run-scoring double.
Silverdale scored on an RBI-single by Cooper after Stinson had led off with a single and stolen second.
A Goodpasture error in the third allowed Silverdale to knot the score with two unearned runs, but the Lady Cougars answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth when Faith Brown’s run-scoring single drove in Reagan Pennington, who had walked with two outs.
Goodpasture then scored three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth and they needed them all as Silverdale rallied one last time to get within a run before the game ended with the potential-tying run on third base.
Stinson had a solo homer to lead off the inning for Silverdale while Bre Sexton had a clutch two-run double with two outs.
Katie Willoughby was the winning pitcher in the first game after allowing three runs on nine hits while striking out 10.
Maddie Bowman, the loser in the first game, came back to win the second one after going the distance.
Kailey Binkley and Aubrey Barnhart both had two hits in the first game for Goodpasture while Stinson and Masterson both had two for Silverdale.
In the second game, Brown and Binkley had two hits for the Lady Cougars while Stinson, Masterson, Cooper and Stiner all had two hits for the Lady Seahawks.
The winner of Thursday’s game advances to the state tournament, which begins on Tuesday in Murfreesboro.
FIRST GAME SUMMARY
GOODPASTURE 000 000 3 – 3 9 3
SILVERDALE 300 220 x – 7 8 1
Bowman, Brown (4) and Crocker; Willoughby and Hensley.
SECOND GAME SUMMARY
SILVERDALE 102 000 3 – 6 11 0
GOODPASTURE 300 103 x – 7 6 1
Sexton, Willoughby (5) and Hensley; Bowman and Dearing.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)