SNEEDVILLE – It felt so nice, they had to do it thrice. The North Greene Lady Huskies softball team defeated Hancock County in Sneedville on Wednesday night to claim their third-straight Region 1-1A Championship.
Head Coach Avery Weems, in his first year as the front man, described the feeling of leading North Greene back to the top of the Region by saying, “It feels great. We just talked about how tough of a place this is to come play. They are a good team and have won 17 games this year. We just talked about how they don’t beat themselves, they make you beat them. I’m just really proud of the girls for being resilient,”
With a win, North Greene now hosts this week’s sectional matchup in Baileyton. It will play the winner of Thursday’s matchup between Oakdale and Greenback in the Region 2-1A championship game. Both teams are 2-2 against each other this season.
“Your season either ends or you go to the state tournament. That’s your only two options. You’ve got to come ready to play, lay it all on the line, you’ve got to push all your chips to the middle of the table, and just hope you come back on top,” Weems expressed.
Wednesday’s matchup for North Greene was a special one for their hosts. Hancock County was not only hosting their first-ever Region Championship in Sneedville, but also competing in their first-ever title game. They made North Greene fight for what they earned and collected six hits with two errors committed by the Lady Huskies. North Greene put the pressure on them with eight hits and forced Hancock to commit five errors. Both squads only struck out three times each.
Hannah Brooks didn’t have her best night in the circle, but still managed to get the win and held the Lady Indians to six hits and three runs. She had a great defense behind her in the later innings to help her escape two jams with runners in scoring position.
“She’s a great pitcher. When she gets chances to get out of things like that, she’s just gonna bare down and put pressure on the offense. She did a great job at throwing strikes and putting the pressure on them down the stretch,” Coach Weems mentioned.
The Lady Huskies had a balanced offense with only one multi-hit performance from Matti Phillips. She went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Kennedy Malone reached safely twice on a pair of errors and delivered an RBI on each of those plate appearances. She finished 0-for-3, but had the only multi-RBI performance with two. Leadoff batter Kinlea Eastep and senior Jourdanne Marr scored two runs each to lead the team.
North Greene is now on a nine-game winning streak and have won 17-of-18 dating back to Sunday’s bracket of the Tiny Day Tournament.
They started exactly how they wanted with a quick run courtesy of their one-two punch of Kinlea Eastep and Loren Blevins. Eastep, after going down 0-2, drew a leadoff walk and scored on Loren Blevins’ bunt. Eastep scored their next run in the third inning. She hit a one-out single to left field and scored from second on an RBI-single from Matti Phillips.
Hancock County got their first hits and run in the third inning. Langley Bryant led off with a single and scored on a two-out, RBI-single from Maddie Short. That made the score 2-1 after three.
North Greene added two in the top of the fourth. Heidi Trentham flew out to left field, but it resulted in an error and she boarded safely. Charlie Turnmire doubled next to put her and Trentham in scoring position. Kennedy Malone scored Trentham on an error committed in the infield. Chloe Keys scored Turnmire’s courtesy runner Jourdanne Marr on a fielder’s choice bunt. The Lady Huskies led 4-1, but not for long.
The Lady Indians started catching up to Brooks’ timing and put them in a pickle. A leadoff single, a walk, and another single spelled trouble. Luckily, North Greene’s defense came to play. The second single was hit to Kinlea Eastep in center and she hit her cutoff, Josie Graham, and she fired the ball to Turnmire at the plate and gunned the runner at the plate. A ground out on the next at bat scored a run and closed the gap to 4-2.
They closed the gap even more to 4-3 in the bottom half of the fifth. Back-to-back singles and an error in the field scored one run. A tricky play occurred on the next at bat on a ball hit back to Brooks. A run down at third base ended with the runner diving back to third safely, but an injury to third baseman Heidi Trentham halted play for a brief moment. Once play resumed, a 4-3-2 double play ended the inning with Blevins, Keys, and Turnmire working together to get the job done.
“That double play was huge and I think that momentum carried over,” Weems stated.
A single run in the sixth pushed North Greene’s lead back to 5-3. Marr led off with a single, stole second and third, and scored on Kennedy Malone’s ground ball to the infield.
Another double play, 5-4-3, cleared the bases in the bottom of the sixth to help North Greene stay out of trouble.
North Greene added two more insurance runs in the seventh. Loren Blevins cracked a single into left field and eventually made it to third base with a steal of second and advanced to third on a grounder. She scored on Josie Graham’s RBI-single with two outs. Heidi Trentham delivered another two-out hit and scored Graham for the final run.
The Lady Huskies made Hancock County go three-up, three-down in the seventh and secured the win to grab their Third-straight District 1-1A Championship.
“Just a real good win for us. This is a hard place to come play. I’m really proud of the girls,” Coach Weems said.
North Greene is now one win away from advancing to the Class 1A State Tournament. They will play the winner of Thursday’s Oakdale/Greenback game in a one-game playoff. That sectional game will be played in Baileyton. The time and date will be determined once the Lady Huskies know their opponent.
