RUTLEDGE — Last year, the Grainger Lady Grizzlies came through the losers bracket to win the District 2-3A softball tournament. Over the weekend, it was the Greeneville Lady Devils’ turn to return the favor.
Greeneville fell behind Grainger by seven runs in the top of the second inning but answered with seven runs in the home half of the inning and kept scoring after that en route to a 12-9 win on Saturday to take the tourney title.
Greeneville, now 26-13, will host David Crockett in the Region 1-3A semifinals on Monday, while while Grainger will travel to Tennessee High.
The start of the game couldn’t have been more of a disaster for Greeneville as Grainger scored a run in the first and then got its bats going in the second as McKenna Key, Alison Byrd and Jaylee Hayes hit three consecutive no-doubt home runs as part of a seven-run outburst.
“As long as I’ve been here, we have never given up back-to-back-to back home runs,” Greeneville coach Matt Million said.
Greeneville displayed a great deal of composure after the Lady Grizzlies’ hit parade and tied things 7-7 in the bottom of the second.
Lydia Darnell tattooed a pitch over the right-field fence for the Lady Greene Devils’ first run. Brynlee Jones had a two-run double and then nine-hole hitter Stoan Rader tripled to right for two more runs. Kyla Jobe and Madison Carpenter hit back-to-back doubles to bring in two more runs.
Greeneville scored four times in the third inning for an 11-7 lead.
Jobe finished the day 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI. Her second two-base hit came in the third and produced two RBI. Addie Lamons and Lauren Million also drove in runs in the third.
“We have a really good pitcher and Grainger has a really good pitcher, and because we have seen each other so much, the pitchers lose any advantage they may have over the hitters,” Million said of both teams’ ability to collect 12 hits each in the game. “I told (Grainger coach Ben Williford) about half way through the game it seemed like a slow-pitch softball game had broken out.”
Greeneville made it 12-7 in the fourth when Kayley Garland made it all the way to third base on a Grainger error and scored on Jones’ sacrifice fly to right.
Jones picked up the win in the circle. In 5 1/3 innings of relief, she gave up five hits, two runs, walked one and struck out four.
Jones retired nine batters in a row at one point and showed grit in the sixth inning.
After Grainger had scored two runs to pull within 12-9 in the sixth, Jones got out of a bases-loaded jam which saw the potential game-winning run come to the plate.
“I’m very proud of the kids for fighting back, I knew they would,” Matt Million said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the entire effort with the bats and then for Brynlee to do what she did, she was an absolute monster today. She’s just a sophomore and has such a bright future ahead of her. She has a lot of movement on her ball. It may be hard to see from the sidelines sometimes but she has a lot of movement and that really threw them off today.
“We were in a tight spot there in the sixth and she was able to get out of it. That kid is going to be great. Her future is going to be as bright as she wants it to be because she has all the talent in the world.”
The Lady Devils are certainly happy to be able to host their region semifinal against Crockett.
“It was big to win this game because even though we know that Crockett is a really good team coming to town on Monday, avoiding having to go to Bristol to face (Tennessee High pitcher Carly Compton, who has committed to North Carolina) was definitely on everyone’s mind,” Matt Million said. “We don’t have to face her and that helps our odds. But Crockett is not a bad team. They are actually a really, really good team and we will have to play or they will beat us badly.”
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