Signal Mountain's Ally Walker and Lookout Valley's Skye Eddington wait for the pitch.
photo by M.A. Locke
Lookout Valley traveled to Signal Mountain on Monday night and both teams put together a spectacular 19 run battle. Early on it seemed the Eagles would walk away from the game with an easy victory, but a resilient Yellowjacket lineup kept the fans guessing until the last pitch, before falling 10-9.
Erica Woodward took the mound in the first inning for Signal Mountain, and outside of one particularly painful inning she threw a great game. She allowed one double in the first, but she forced the other three Lookout Valley batters in the inning into easily manageable pop-outs.
Makenlie Williams took the mound opposite Woodward in the bottom of the first, Williams struggled early but she would make up for it in later innings. She allowed four hits, all singles, and three RBIs in her first inning on the mound.
The second inning looked much like the first for the Yellow Jackets on offense. They managed to pick up another hit, a single, but they couldn’t do anything with it as the other three batters in the inning were quickly dealt with by the Eagles in the field. One of those outs was provided by a fantastic catch from Signal Mountain second baseman Gracie Ellis, who leapt to her right to snatch a line drive heading deep into the outfield. Spectacular catches were a theme in the game.
The second inning also looked a lot like the first for Signal Mountain behind the plate, as again they had four hits and three RBIs. Carlee Lowry had one of those hits and one of those RBIs in the inning, Lowry went four for four on the night with one double and three RBIs. At the end of the second it looked as though the game might be called early as the Eagles retook the field up 6-0.
Lookout Valley started to show a little life in the third inning, but only a little. They managed to pick up two hits off Woodward in the inning, one of which was a double from Abby Reed which brought lead-off batter Ansley McBryer home to score, picking up a crucial run and making things 6-1.
The Eagles stayed hot offensively in the third inning by scoring three more runs to make the game 9-1.
Lookout Valley couldn’t do themselves any favors back at the plate in the top of the fourth inning as the back end of the lineup suffered a three and out. The Yellow Jackets kept their cool however and once back out in the field they delivered a quick three and out of their own, so that by the end of the fourth inning the Eagles were still comfortably up 9-1.
Again, Lookout Valley was unproductive at the plate in the top of the fifth inning. Anniston Quails led off with a big double into center field, but she was left stranded by the following three Yellowjacket batters. Signal Mountain escaped the fifth inning thanks to a fantastic diving catch by right fielder Kynsie King, which even had some of the opposing fans clapping.
Mcbryer’s run for Lookout Valley in the third inning became extremely important in the bottom of the fifth as Sianna Reagan ripped a single shot home run over the deepest part of the fence, putting her squad up 10-1. Had the Yellow Jackets not scored when they did the 10-run rule would have applied and the game would have been over without a sixth inning.
That would have been a shame because the sixth inning is where things really got interesting as Lookout Valley’s silent bats finally started singing. Abby Reed got things started with a lead-off double that was followed by six more hits and two walks. By the time the dust had settled Lookout Valley had scored 8 runs and put themselves right back into the game, with Signal Mountain now up by one at 10-9.
The great Yellow Jacket offense in the sixth inning was matched by their defense. Left fielder Anniston Quails chased down two deep pop-ups to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard, meaning Lookout Valley went into the seventh and final inning down only one run.
Signal Mountain pitcher Erica Woodward made up for her weak sixth inning by catching a pop-up fly then striking out the next batter. It was all over after Eagles’ third baseman Carlee Lowry scooped up a routine ground ball and threw the runner out at first base, ending an intense softball game 10-9 in Signal Mountain’s favor.
Lookout Valley 001 008 0 – 9 14 2
Signal Mountain 332 010 – 10 11 5
Williams and Addison; Woodward and Coterel