PHOTO GALLERY: Lady Devils too much for Lady Warriors

JOHNSON CITY — Unicoi County Middle School’s Carly Baxter and Deanna Gill combined to throw a one-hitter and the Lady Blue Devils pulled away in the fourth inning to beat Rogersville City School 11-2 on Monday (May 6) in the Class A Section 1 softball semifinals at Boones Creek Elementary School.

It was RCS’ first trip to the sectional semifinals in softball.

“That’s a great softball team right there. We just got beat by the team I think will win the state tournament,” said RCS head coach Melissa Boyd. “He said they’re almost all eighth graders and it shows.”

The Lady Blue Devils were the Class A state champions in 2022 and the runners-up in 2023.

Baxter collected the win. She gave up two runs (one earned) on one hit, walked one and struck out 13. Gill closed out the game with an inning of scoreless relief. She struck out two. The pitching duo only walked one batter in the game and struck out 15.

Bailey Bledsoe took the loss for RCS in the circle, giving up 11 runs (eight earned) on 12 hits with two walks and nine strikeouts.

Unicoi’s 12 hits included six for extra bases. The Lady Blue Devils broke it open with a five-run fourth inning. Until then, the two teams had been locked in a battle with Unicoi leading 1-0 after three.

In the fourth, Gill’s one-out double got things started. Unicoi then took advantage of RCS’ only error on the day and used a trio of singles, a dropped third strike, a hitter batter and a fielder’s choice to forge ahead 6-0. They’d tack on another run in the fifth and led 7-0 before RCS finally clawed its way into the scoring column.

Bledsoe picked up RCS’ only hit, a triple in the sixth to score Carter Thurman. Bledsoe then came in to score when Caroline Hicks reached on an error to cut the Unicoi lead to 7-2.

Unicoi answered in duplicate in the bottom of the sixth. A pair of triples and an inside-the-park home run added four more runs to the tally. Gill sat the Lady Warriors down in order in the seventh to provide the final margin.

“I can’t say enough about this team. They’ve gone leaps and bounds above what I ever expected — to finish 21-5 with a conference championship and as the area runner-up,” Boyd said. “They’re the first team to win a sectional game to get to the semifinals, which are basically the sweet 16 in the state. That’s pretty amazing.”