STONEY CREEK – The North Greene softball team started their postseason run with a bang, defeating the Lady Bucs of University High 12-1 in the opening round of the District 1-1A softball tournament held at Unaka High School.
Lady Husky coach Avery Weems said, “I thought we hit it well today, we hit it with authority, not just putting the ball in play but hitting it hard. That was good to see because we didn’t hit it well last time we played on Thursday. Hopefully we’ll build on the momentum from today and I hope we can carry that into next week.”
The Lady Bucs dented the scoreboard in the top of the first inning, Emma Linkous reached on and error and took second on the throw. Alex Boynewicz singled just under the glove of Addi Dean at third for an RBI single and a 1-0 lead.
The second inning saw the Lady Bucs threaten again but starting pitcher Matti Phillips got two consecutive ground ball outs to keep the Lady Bucs off the scoreboard.
Charlie Turnmire and Hannah Brooks drew back-to-back walks and Phillips had a chance to help herself at the plate, and she did just that. The senior sent a shot to centerfield that cleared the fence for a three-run dinger. Dean followed that with single and went to second base when the center fielder bobbled the ball. Chloe Keys bunted Dean to third and Eva Leonard drove her in with a sac-fly to right as the Lady Huskies took a 4-1 lead after two innings.
Brooks took to the circle in relief of Phillips to start the third inning, and shut down the Lady Buccaneers. She struck out eight, walked none and allowed three hits.
Weems later said, “It was the game plan, Hannah missed a couple games and hadn’t thrown in over a week, so we wanted to give her some action today. We wanted to start Matti, but we had planned ahead to use both of them.”
Brooks got the first batter on a routine fly ball to center and Linkous tripled on a ball that Phillips lost in the sun in right field. Brooks would strikeout the next two batters and strand Linkous at third.
In the bottom of the third the Lady Huskies struck for four more runs. Josie Graham doubled down the line in left field to get things going and Turnmire reached on an error. Kylee Listek came on as a courtesy runner for Turnmire and quickly stole second. Brooks hit a sac-fly to score Graham, the next batter, Phillips, singled on the first pitch to score Listek.
Phillips stole second and was knocked home by Dean’s RBI single to left. Dean would take second on the throw. Kinlea Eastep would cap off the inning when she singled up the middle to score Dean from second, giving North Greene an 8-1 lead after three innings.
Brooks was showing no signs of rust from the week off and sat down the Lady Bucs in 1-2-3 fashion by striking out the side in the top of the fourth.
The Lady Huskies plated four more runs in the bottom portion of the fourth with back-to-back doubles from Tralyn Southerland and Graham. Brooks doubled off the fence to score Graham. Dean beat out an infield hit and knocked in the next run. Keys singled to center and a throwing error allowed Dean to score the final run of the inning.
In the top of the fifth Brooks once again struck out the side, sandwiched around a couple of singles. The Lady Huskies didn’t have to bat in the bottom half and won 12-1 via run rule, starting the playoff run on the right foot.
Brooks picked up the win in relief. Phillips allowed no earned runs and only two hits in her two innings of work.
The Lady Huskies banged out 14 hits, led by Dean’s three hits. Southerland, Graham and Phillips each had two hits apiece, one of Phillips’ hits was the big three-run homer.
