The South Greene Lady Rebels shook off a slow start and scored 10-straight runs to knock off Johnson County 10-3 on Friday afternoon.
“We started off rough and had a couple of good innings, but played some pretty good defense though,” South Greene’s Head Coach Amy Hawk expressed.
Thursday didn’t go so well for South Greene with a shutout loss to Unicoi County. They needed to get back in the win column on Friday with another District 1-2A competitor traveling to South Greene. The contest started about as bad as it could, but they weathered the early storm and stormed back with half-a-dozen runs in the bottom half of the first and held Johnson County scoreless for the final six innings.
“After having a loss like that and bouncing back said a lot about our team,” Hawk said.
Johnson County actually outhit South Greene 9-to-8 despite losing 10-3. The Lady Longhorns were the sloppier team on defense though and committed five errors to South Greene’s two.
Whitney Reaves and Neveah Davis had South Greene’s best performances at the plate with the only multi-hit and multi-RBI days. Reaves led off and went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and one run. Davis had the exact same stat line. Kortnei Bailey, Paisley Brobeck, and Sadie Knowles scored two runs each.
Bailey was South Greene’s starter again and earned the win with seven complete innings, nine hits, three runs, four walks, and four strikeouts.
“I felt like Kortnei was pretty solid with her pitching and I feel like our defense was pretty good around her,” Coach Hawk mentioned.
South Greene improved to 8-2 (5-1) with the win.
In what seemed like the longest first inning imaginable, both teams combined for nine runs and South Greene led 6-3.
Ella Icenhour and Maddie Bendon led off with back-to-back singles. CJ Lipford was hit by a pitch and loaded the bases with no outs. Ezzy Barr walked with the bases juiced and helped score the first run. Karlie Fletcher delivered a two-RBI double and lifted Johnson County ahead 3-0 after the opening frame.
The Lady Rebels finally got the chance to bat and batted around while scoring six runs. Reaves was struck by a pitch then Bailey and Brobeck drew back-to-back walks to load the bags with zero outs. Davis provided South Greene’s first pair of runs with a two-RBI double.
Sadie Knowles reached first safely after an error in the field and Brobeck scored in the process to tie it 3-3. Asjalond Parton was hit by a pitch and loaded the bases. Reagan Arrowood walked next and helped break the tie for a 4-3 lead. Reaves got to bat again in the first and delivered a two-RBI single. South Greene led 6-3 after a very long first inning.
“I felt a lot more comfortable after we scored those runs because I feel like Johnson County always has a really good hitting team and I felt like they had a really good pitcher,” Coach Hawk stated.
The lead reached 7-3 in the second inning with Macy Roberts’ RBI-single aided by a fielding error, scoring Sadie Knowles.
Things got worse for Johnson County as South Greene perfected a rare triple play to get out of the third inning. Davis caught a liner and flipped it to Hailey Williamson at second. Williamson fired it to Haylee Bird at first to complete the inning-ending play.
The Lady Rebels added a trio of insurance runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 10-3. Bailey walked and Brobeck singled to send her home. Williamson singled next and sent Brobeck home. Knowles walked with the bases loaded and drove home another run.
South Greene played well on defense and held Johnson County scoreless after the first and defeated the visiting Lady Longhorns 10-3 in the end.
South Greene travels to North Greene on Monday to play the Lady Huskies in the continuation of the March 27th contest followed by a five-inning game.
