CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Getting a one-hit, complete-game shutout paired with timely hitting gave Cleveland its second District 5-4A win of the year Tuesday, blanking McMinn County 5-0, at Brenda Lawson Field.
Freshman Huntlee Dennison dominated the visiting Lady Cherokees, allowing just three baserunners on an efficient 82 pitches over seven innings, while fellow rookie counterpart Ariyah Huffman knocked in two of the four Lady Raider earned runs with a two-run double for the exclamation point in the fourth.
With the win, Cleveland moves to 8-7 overall and 2-1 in District 5-4A play. The Lady Raiders are slated to play East Hamilton this afternoon in a makeup of Monday's rained out contest.
Coach LeeAnne Shurette's club will entertain 2024 TSSAA DII-AA state champion Baylor Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
LADY RAIDERS 5, LADY CHEROKEES 0: After a scoreless opening at bat, Cleveland found the scoreboard in the second inning with junior Brylee Cisco stroking a RBI-single, scoring senior Aspen Tipton-Williams, who singled to start the two-out rally, before stealing second and scoring from there.
An uber-efficient five-pitch third inning by Dennison, aided by two Huffman putouts on McMinn bunt attempts to third, turned the bats quickly back over to the Lady Raiders in the bottom half.
In that third, junior Lilly Mason doubled with one out and later came around to score on a Lady Cherokee fielding error to give the hosts a 2-0 advantage.
Dennison was efficient yet again in the fourth with a six-pitch frame, thanks to a putout from junior Landri Nelson, Huffman and Dennison in the half-inning.
Tipton-Williams led off the bottom half of the fourth with a walk, Cisco reached on an error and then Huffman ripped the double to the wall to score them both.
Two batters later, Huffman came around to score the game's fifth and final run on a Mason sacrifice fly.
McMinn's only hit of the game would come in the fifth on a Brooklyn Barnett grounder that was just outside of the outstretched glove of Cisco, but Dennison responded quickly to induce a groundout and flyout to end any threat. To end the night, the teams went down in order to reach the 5-0 final.
Mason went 2-for-2 as the only Lady Raider with multiple hits, while Cisco, Huffman, Tipton-Williams and Jamaya Hill earned a hit apiece in the Cleveland lineup.
Nelson, Tipton-Williams and Sofia Greene all reached base with a free pass apiece.
GAME SUMMARY
District 5-4A
Tuesday, April 1
at Cleveland
McMinn County 000 000 0 — 0 1 2
Cleveland 011 300 5 — 5 7 2
WP: Huntlee Dennison 7 IP, 6 Ks, 1 hit, 1 BB, 0 ER. LP: Bailey Derrick 6 IP, 0 Ks, 7 hits, 3 BB, 2 ER. 2B: Lilly Mason, Ariyah Huffman (C). RBI: Huffman 2, Brylee Cisco, Mason (C). RECORDS: McMinn County 3-9, 0-2 District 5-4A; Cleveland 8-7, 2-1 District 5-4A.