The South Greene softball team extended its season on Tuesday evening by starting the District 1-2A Tournament with a 12-1 win over Johnson County.
“I’ve been waiting for us to play better for several games now, and I felt like we did that today,” South Greene coach Amy Hawk said. “We played as a team, and played with some confidence. I told them at practice that we didn’t finish the season very well, but that time was over and now we’re starting over. If you are going to start playing better, you want it to be in tournament time.”
With Tuesday’s win South Greene advances to the district championship game on Thursday at Unicoi County, and secures a berth in next week’s Region 1-2A Tournament.
“We have not been playing our best, but it feels really good to know that we get to keep playing. It was really good to get a complete game with offense and defense. And I think we needed this to boost our confidence,” South Greene senior Paisley Brobeck said.
The Lady Rebels had a big day at the plate, using eight different batters to accumulate 13 hits. Hailey Williamson was 3-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. Regan Arrowood was 2-for-3 with a double. Kortnei Bailey went 2-for-3 with a double and three runs scored. Paisley Brobeck had a two-run home run. Whitney Reaves had two hits and Bailey Burrell had a double.
“It was nice to see hits sprinkled throughout the lineup,” Hawk said. “We got hits from the top to the bottom and different girls stepped up with good at bats at different times.”
Johnson County struck first on Tuesday and scored its lone run in the top of the first inning. Maddie Bendon reached base on a walk and Ezzy Barr moved her all the way around when she flew a ball to deep left field.
After that Bailey and South Greene’s defense locked down the rest of the way, and kept the Lady Longhorns from scoring again. Bailey only allowed four hits on Tuesday while striking out five and walking three.
“Kortnei was solid tonight. She threw with confidence. I really feel like she showed up ready to play,” Hawk said.
South Greene answered right away and evened things at 1-1 in the bottom of the first frame. Reaves led off the inning by landing a single in the right-center gap. With two outs Williamson knocked her in by firing a line drive past the shortstop.
In the third inning the Lady Rebels scored three runs and took control of the game with a 4-1 lead. Bailey was walked to lead off the side and Williamson sent a ball through the left side to put South Greene in front.
Williamson stole second and when the throw to catch her missed, she ended up on third. Nevaeh Davis hit a groundball to the right side that resulted in a pair of errors that put her on second base. Arrowood followed by sending a fly ball to right field that scored Davis.
Brobeck stretched the lead to 6-1 in the fourth inning when she obliterated a two-run homerun. The ball sailed over the fence in right-center and nearly cleared the batting cage standing beyond the wall.
South Greene put the game away by scoring six runs with two outs to end the game by run rule. In total nine of the Lady Rebels’ runs scored on Tuesday crossed with two outs.
Arrowood started the big inning by sending a double deep into left field. Macy Roberts sent an RBI single to right field and then Bailey Burrell landed a run-scoring double in the right-center gap.
Reaves fouled off five pitches before sending an RBI single through the left side. Bailey sent a double to left field and Williamson ended the night by skipping a two-run single through the right side.
