By WAYNE
PHILLIPS
Sports Editor
ELIZABETHTON
-- Elizabethton used just one swing of the bat to break the hearts of Chuckey-Doak's Lady Knights
here Monday night in the semifinals of the District 1-AA softball
tournament.
Jasmine Treadway lofted a long home run over the left field
fence in the bottom of the eighth inning, vaulting the Lady Cyclones to an exciting 2-1 extra-inning
victory over Chuckey-Doak.
In the earlier game Monday, powerful Unicoi
County rode the strong pitching arm of Jessica Mason to a 6-0 win over South Greene to move on in
the winner's bracket.
That means that the two Greene County rivals,
Chuckey-Doak and South Greene, will meet today at 5 p.m. in an elimination game. Elizabethton and
Unicoi County play at 6:30. The C-D/SG winner will play the loser of the Elizabethton/Unicoi game on
Wednesday to see who gets a chance to move on to the tourney finals and a berth in the regional
playoffs.
Knights Lose Thriller
Treadway's walk-off homer in the eighth ended a splendid game that was filled with
big plays and missed opportunities by both squads.
The play that had the
ball park buzzing came in the bottom of the seventh inning when Chuckey-Doak center fielder Kelley
Weems ended a Cyclone scoring threat, and forced extra innings, when she threw out Kelce Mains at
home plate on a perfect strike to the plate after fielding a base hit by Summer
Smith.
"Obviously if they score there, it's over," Chuckey-Doak Coach
Gene Ward said. "It was a heck of a throw. It had to be right on the money to get her, and it
was."
Knight catcher Miranda Lane caught the throw as Mains was sliding
to the plate, and the out was made to force extra innings.
C-D pitcher
Tiffany Bowman also showed a lot of mettle in the bottom of the fourth when Elizabethton threatened
to blow the game open as they loaded the bases with nobody out. But they got only one run out of it.
Kady Robinson brought one home with a sacrifice fly. A walk reloaded the bases, but Bowman was able
to get Mains on a fly ball to center (the runner mysteriously failed to tag and try to score), then
struck out Kyla Jones to end the threat.
That 1-0 score looked like it
might stand up, but the Knights got it back in the sixth. Bowman led off the inning with a single
and was bunted to second by Kala Kyker. Lane then brought home Bowman with a single up the middle to
knot the score.
Chuckey-Doak threatened in the top of the eighth. Jordan
Bowers led off with a hit to left and with one out Bowman bunted her down to second. Kyker followed
with a hit up the middle but Bowers had to be stopped at third on a good relay
home.
Elizabethton then replaced starting pitcher Taylor Bellesa with
Kady Robinson, who got the third out on a strikeout to end the C-D
threat.
Treadway then ended the game in the bottom of the eighth with the
two-out, solo homer over the fence in left.
Robinson got the pitching win
in relief. Bowman went the distance and took the
loss.
CD AB R H EHS AB R H
Frye,ss 3 0 0 Jones,ss 3 0 1
Bowman,p 3 1 1 Smith,2b 4 0 2
Kyker,lf 3 0 1 Bellesa,p 4 0 0
Lane,c 4 0 2 Henson,cf 4 1 1
Crum,2b 3 0 0 T'way,lf 4 1 3
Weems,cf 3 0 0 Eggers,c 3 0 1
Ward,3b 3 0 2 Rob'son,1b 2 0 0
Stills,1b 3 0 0 Powell,3b 2 0 0
Bowers,rf 3 0 1 Mains,rf 3 0 1
TOTALS 28 1 7 TOTALS 29 2 9
2b
Hits: CD-Ward. HR: Eliz-Treadway. WP: Robinson. LP: Bowman.
Score by
innings:
Chuckey-Doak 000 001 00--1
7
Elizabethton 000 100 01--2
9
Mason Limits Rebels
South Greene was able to get base runners against Unicoi County pitcher Jessica
Mason, but they couldn't come up with a timely hit, and the Blue Devils chipped away for a 6-0 win
over the Rebels.
Mason was extremely sharp, registering 16 strikeouts and
not walking a batter. The Rebels had five base runners, one in each inning except the first and
seventh, but never could get a timely hit to move them around.
The Blue
Devils, meanwhile, played "small ball," moving runners with bunts and scoring when they got runners
in position.
The Rebels got two hits from Brittany Casteel, the first
coming as the lead-off hitter in the second inning. But three consecutive strikeouts quickly ended
that hope.
The Devils made it 1-0 with a run in the second on a hit by
Kara Woods, a fielder's choice, a stolen base and an RBI single by Emilee
Lovette.
Brittany Kinser almost tied it up in the third when with two
outs she lined a shot to left field that caromed off the wall for a double, and she wound up at
third when the throw to third went into the dugout. But the third out came on a
strikeout.
Unicoi County made it 3-0 in the fourth with a pair of runs on
three straight hits. Whitney Hensley and Woods each singled and they moved up on a throwing error
from the outfield. Ali Gardner brought both runners home with a
single.
They added a solo unearned run in the fifth as the Rebels made
two errors, and collected two more runs in the sixth on a RBI groundout by Lovette and a squeeze
bunt by Elizabeth Raby.
In addition to the double by Kinser and two
singles by Casteel, Courtney Laney collected the only other hit for the Rebels, a single in the
fifth.
SG AB R H UC AB R H
Kinser,cf 3 0 1 T'way,ss 3 0 1
Rader,2b 3 0 0 M'dows,1b 2 0 0
Malone,rf 3 0 0 Mason,p 3 0 0
Casteel,3b 3 0 2 H'nsley,c 3 1 1
Ricker,c 3 0 0 Woods,3b 3 2 3
Renner,ss 3 0 0 Gardner,cf 3 2 2
Crum,lf 3 0 0 Lovette,2b 3 0 1
Bk.Kinser,p 3 0 0 Raby,lf 2 0 0
Laney,dh 2 0 1 Webb,rf 3 1 0
Cannon,1b 0 0 0
TOTALS 26 0 4 TOTALS 25 6 8
2b
Hits: SG-Bt.Kinser. WP: Mason. LP: Bk.Kinser.
Score by
innings:
South Greene 000 000 0--0
4
Unicoi County 010 212 x--6 8