The third time wasn’t the charm for the Cleveland Lady Blue Raider softball team.
Facing the Lady Hurricanes from East Hamilton in the semifinal round of the Region 3-4A tournament at Warner Park’s Frost Stadium, the Lady Canes made it three straight wins with a 13-4 victory.
With the win, East Hamilton improves to 22-9 and will await the winner of Ooltewah and Walker Valley. That game was postponed on Monday for unplayable fields.
The good news about playing at Frost is the artificial turf. It rained liked cats and dogs about 4:30 and didn’t stop until about 5, which was the original game time. Within 30 minutes, the skies were blue, play was underway and nobody was thinking about more bad weather.
East Hamilton coach Norma Nelson is really pleased with the way her team is playing these days as they’re getting timely hits, awesome pitching from senior Yulai Woodruff and solid errorless defense.
“We still have two more big games this week, but this is a great start as we had solid play all around,” Nelson said after the game ended.
“I thought we played well. Yulai gave up just one hit and had nine strikeouts. The defense was solid and I thought we played well overall as I’m really pleased. There was no rule in place, so that’s why the game continued after we got the 10-run rule, but we’re getting closer and closer to advancing to the state tournament next week,” she smiled.
Woodruff allowed a leadoff single to Allison Farnsworth in the second inning. She was later doubled off when Aspen Tipton-Williams lined to second for the second out and the throw beat her back to first to end the inning. Huntlee Dennison earned a walk with two outs in the third, but those were the only two base runners as Woodruff was on top of her game once more.
The Lady Canes scored two runs in the first before adding one in the third and two more in the fourth. Thinking that if East Hamilton scored five more runs in the fifth, the game would be called with the run rule, but the umpires and coaches never discussed it before the game and therefore, never used.
East Hamilton then put the game out of reach with eight runs in the fifth as they sent 11 hitters to the plate. Bri Nichols had a two-run double for one big blow while Woodruff ripped a two-run homer past the scoreboard in center for another big hit.
That was the end of the game for the talented senior as freshman Nichols took over and pitched the final two innings.
Cleveland rallied to score four runs in the sixth, the big blow being a two-run single by Landri Nelson ahead of a two-run homer by Farnsworth. Nichols then got a called third strike to end the six and allowed a leadoff single to Tipton-Williams in the seventh getting the next three outs to end the game.
Cleveland coach Leeanne Shurette was just glad that her team had two final at-bats, despite the run-rule not being used.
“I don’t think we played like we’re capable of playing as we made some key mistakes that hurt, but Yulai is a really good pitcher and we just didn’t have any success hitting her today,” the veteran coach began.
“I’m just glad that we showed a little fight at the end. It’s not over until it’s over and I just wanted my seniors to have at least one more time at the plate. There was no pressure on us at that point and this sport is more than winning games. I’m sure I made Norma mad at the end, but she’s been my coach for a long time and I’m hoping she will forgive me one of these days,” Shurette concluded with a smile.
Huntlee Dennison pitched the first four innings before being replaced after Marilyn Evans led off the fifth with a double. Dennison allowed six runs on seven hits and had three walks and two strikeouts while Klaire Hall gave up the final seven runs on six hits. She also had two walks, one strikeout and one hit batter.
Farnsworth was the only Cleveland player with two hits as the Lady Blue Raiders ended the game with six. The Lady Blue Raiders end their season at 17-15.
Bailey Poschke, G.O. Kapo, Nichols and Evans all had two hits for the Lady Canes with Nichols driving in three and Poschke two.
East Hamilton will host the region final on Wednesday, weather permitting. No word has been said about if the game would be at their home field or back at Frost. The region champion will host a sectional game on Friday with the winner advancing to Murfreesboro for next week’s state tournament.
CLEVELAND 000 004 0 – 4 6 1
EAST HAMILTON 201 280 x – 13 13 0
Dennison, Hall (5) and Mason; Woodruff, Nichols (6) and Farris.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)