Following a rainy Monday morning, the skies cleared just in time for North Greene and Hancock County to open the Region 1-1A Tournament.
The Lady Huskies made the most of their nine hits, capitalized on Lady Indian miscues, scored in every inning and cruised to a 10-0 victory, sending them to their sixth consecutive region title game.
North Greene head coach Avery Weems praised his team’s effort after the win.
“I thought we played well and got off to a quick start,” Weems said. “It didn’t feel like we had a ton of hits, but we put the ball in play, and with our speed we put some pressure on them. That allowed us to create some runs. It was a really good effort from our pitchers. All around, I was pretty pleased.”
Kinlea Eastep and Addi Dean paced North Greene at the plate with two singles each, while Matti Phillips doubled in her two plate appearances and drove in a pair of runs.
Hannah Brooks got the start in the circle for the Lady Huskies and tossed three shutout innings to earn the win. She allowed just one hit, a double by Calyn Seal, while striking out three. Phillips worked an inning of relief, striking out one and walking one, while Charlie Turnmire closed things out with two strikeouts and allowed one hit.
North Greene wasted no time getting started in the bottom of the first.
Eastep opened the inning with a bunt single and quickly stole second. After Eva Leonard was retired on a flyout, Tralyn Southerland reached on an infield single. An errant throw moved both runners into scoring position with one out.
Hancock County starter, Seal, appeared poised to escape further trouble after getting Josie Graham to swing and miss for what should have been the second out, but the pitch skipped away from the catcher. Graham reached safely as two runs scored to give North Greene a 2-0 lead.
Turnmire followed with a single to move Graham to third, and Brooks reached on a throwing error that allowed both Graham and Turnmire to score, doubling the lead to 4-0. Another defensive miscue plated one more run as the Lady Huskies carried a 5-0 advantage out of the opening frame.
“It’s super important to get out to that early lead,” Weems said. “It puts pressure on them, helps your pitcher and gives you a good feeling playing from ahead.”
North Greene added an insurance run in the second when Leonard led off with a bunt single and advanced all the way to third on an overthrow at first. She later scored to make it 6-0 when Southerland reached on a fielding error.
The Lady Huskies extended their lead again in the third.
Brooks opened the inning with a single before giving way to her courtesy runner, who stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error to make it 7-0.
Phillips then drew a walk and Dean singled to center before Hancock County recorded its first out of the inning. Estep followed with her second bunt single of the game to load the bases, and Leonard brought home another run with a fielder’s choice to push the lead to 8-0.
North Greene put the finishing touches on the win with two more runs in the fourth to make it 10-0. The big blows came on an RBI double by Phillips and an RBI single from Dean.
With the win, North Greene (22-9-1) will host Cloudland on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Region 1-1A championship game. Cloudland advanced with an 11-6 win over Cosby.
It will mark the fifth meeting between the two teams this season, and Weems knows the value of playing for a title on their home field as North Greene chases its fourth straight region championship and fifth in the last six years.
“You can’t overstate how important it is to host that region championship game,” Weems said. “We talked about how much motivation that gives us because if we win, we host a substate game Friday. We want to do the same things we did today — put pressure on them, use our speed and athleticism to make plays, get a lot of strikes from our pitchers and make plays behind them.”
