RUTLEDGE – The Greeneville Lady Devils were playing for a shot at Volunteer in the District 2-3A Championship, but came up short Friday night in Rutledge against Grainger, suffering a 9-4 loss that ended their season.
“As for our season this year we started pretty slow. There was a point in our season that we were very concerned with how we were moving, the record wasn’t great, and we had played some really tough teams,” Greeneville coach Lilly Million said. “But I’m super proud of the way we turned it around. They won the district in the regular season, overall I’m super proud of them.”
The game didn’t start the way the Lady Devils would have liked and Grainger’s Jaylee Hayes singled to center field. Shylo Williford followed that with two-run home-run to straight away center for a 2-0 lead midway through the first inning.
The Lady Devils got one of the runs back in the top half of the first inning when Brylee Tullock reached on an error and scored when Kaley Garland sent a fly ball over the centerfielder’s head for and RBI double. Garland was stranded at third and the Lady Devils trailed 2-1 after one inning.
Brynlee Jones walked a batter and hit a batter but managed to get out of the second inning without allowing either runner to score.
In the bottom of the frame Jamie Jackson singled through the hole between third and short. Katie Johnson was safe on a fielder’s choice and Jackson came around to score when Tullock laced a double to left field.
Baylee Ramsey beat out an infield single to load the bases. Garland struck out and Jones flew out to center to end the inning. Lady Devils let scoring opportunity slip away but did manage to tie the score at 2-2 after two innings.
Grainger’s Hayes led off the third inning with a single to left and Williford came through again, but this time it stayed in the yard. Her RBI double broke the tie to put the Lady Grizz up at 3-2. Williford scored on an RBI single by Emma Hodge and the score was 4-2 in favor of Grainger.
Jones got the next three batters out to keep the game close and Williford sat down the Lady Devils in order and the score 4-2 after three complete innings.
In the fourth, fifth and sixth innings both teams defense and pitching was good enough to keep the score where it was into the seventh inning.
Although the game was played in Rutledge, Grainger was the visiting team on the scoreboard and added five insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning.
The Lady Devils, now down seven runs needed to put on their rally-caps and hope for a miracle. Garland hustled out an infield single and Jones hit a solid single to center. Garland and jones pulled off the double steal and were at second and third base respectively. Brooke Parsley then scorched a long single to right-center field scoring both Garland and Jones and the Lady Devils had a slim glimmer of hope.
Williford got Gabby Atchison to hit a ground ball that she handled cleanly for out number two and struck out Kinsley Lewandowski to end the game.
The Lady Devils out hit the Lady Grizz 12-9 for the game. Tullock, Garland, Parsley and Jones each had two hits to lead the Lady Devils.
Williford was big for the Lady Grizzlies, both in the circle and at the plate. She had two hits and three RBIs, one of those hits was the two-run homer. She allowed only three earned runs while striking out nine and picking up the win.
