Lebanon ends softball?s season: Blue Devilettes seal win with three-run sixth
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The tournament, which was originally scheduled to be played in Cookeville this year, had to be moved to Oakland High School after two rounds of play because of rain.
LeAnne Smith took the mound for the Lady Pioneers, working against Lebanon?s Jennifer Brewington. Smith and Brewington battled it out through five innings before Lebanon broke the game open in the sixth.
Smith worked five innings, giving up eight hits and three runs while facing 23 batters, before Brittany Ferrell came in and faced six batters in one inning of work, allowing three hits and one run.
Brewington picked up the win for the Blue Devilettes, working all seven innings against 22 batters and allowing three hits, while fanning 11 Lady Pioneers.
Warren County had its chance to put a run on the board in the top of the first, after back-to-back bunts from Ashlee Malone and MaCall Cooper with one out. Katie Rogers hit into a fielder?s choice putting runners on the corners. Rogers tried to steal second, but was called out for leaving too early for the final out of the inning, spoiling Warren County?s scoring opportunity.
Lebanon loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning off of a walk, an error and a batter hit by a pitch, but Smith struck out Hope Arnold to get out of the inning with no damage being done.
Warren County went down swinging 1-2-3 in the top of the second. The Blue Devilettes sent one run across the plate in the bottom of the inning, when Stephanie Thompson led things off with a single up the middle. A passed ball and a bunt moved the runner to third for Hope Sampson, who picked up the RBI with a single up the middle for a 1-0 lead.
In the third, fourth and fifth innings the Lady Pioneers went down in order as Brewington confused Warren County?s batters. Lebanon threatened in the fourth with a double from Thompson and Hope Sampson drove the ball to center field, but Malone came up with the catch and fired the ball back to second for the third out.
The Lady Pioneers? third, and final, hit of the game came in the top of the sixth with two outs after Penny Wanamaker and Brooke Bowman had been retired. Kayley Murray doubled to left-center, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple for the third out.
In the bottom of the sixth Ferrell came in to pitch after a leadoff triple by Meghan Maynard and back-to-back singles put the Blue Devilettes out in front 3-0 with no outs. Sampson picked up her third hit of the game when she singled to left, scoring Thompson to give Lebanon a 4-0 lead.
Warren County finally got out of the inning, but the damage was done. In the top of the seventh Warren County once again went down in order as Lebanon moved on to the finals of the losers, bracket.
?We didn?t bring our bats tonight,? said coach David Upton. ?Defensively we played a great game, and LeAnne pitched very well. It was anybody?s ballgame until the bottom of the sixth, and Lebanon just came out and put together several big hits.?
The Lady Pioneers finished the season 11-27 and 3-11 in district action.
?I thought we had a good year, and I told the girls after the game how proud I was of them,? Upton said. ?This year we were never out of any game we played and took a lot of teams to extra innings. We took big steps this season. We?re still a young team, and this team laid down a solid foundation for the next three years.?