After coming alive in the first pair of innings, the South Greene bats faltered, opening the door for Johnson County to steal a 4-3 win in 10 innings in the District 1-2A softball tournament championship game on Friday at South Greene.
“We really wanted to win and our girls played tough,” South Greene coach Amy Hawk said. “We just didn’t hit the ball today. I think it was just an off night at the plate. Sometimes you can really want something too much and put a lot of pressure on yourself and I think after that first couple innings, we had runners in scoring position and we just didn’t do enough damage.”
While South Greene’s hitting stalled in the middle innings, the Lady Rebels were able to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Down 3-2 with two out, Katie Willett hit a line drive to center field for a single, stole second, took third on a passed ball and scored when Kortnei Bailey doubled to center.
Johnson County loaded the bases in the eighth inning, but South Greene’s Madison Hensley made a diving catch of a foul ball to end the inning.
“We made some really big plays on defense,” Hawk said. “We’ve done that all year long. And I don’t want to take anything away from Johnson County, they played really well, they hit the ball. They just kept hitting the ball and we just kept having to come up with plays. There a few times that they hit them into the gap and we just didn’t have a chance.”
Entering the 10th inning, the teams agreed to start with a runner on second. Johnson County took a 4-3 lead on a passed ball and a single to center.
“Getting beat by one run in 10 innings shows that we should have put more runs up,” Hawk said. “We should have put a lot more pressure on them. I feel like we were fighting the whole time, and I feel like we were trying to hit the ball. It just wasn’t going our way. You barely get under it, barely get on top of it. It just didn’t go our way.”
South Greene’s Kaylee Whitson toughed it out all 10 innings in the circle. She gave up 17 hits, walked one and struck out two. Three of Johnson County’s four runs were earned.
“Kaylee had a lot of energy today,” Hawk said. “She had a lot of intensity, she wanted to win and she’s very upset. But she had enough juice to keep going.”
Willett was 2-for-3, Bailey was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Whitney Reaves was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Davis was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
South Greene, now 17-9, will travel to Alcoa on Monday for a Region 1-2A tournament semifinal.
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