Early mistakes open door for Lady Hawks to return to state

May 22—MT. JULIET — Lincoln County brought a solid team to the Hill last Friday in an effort to block the Lady Hawks' road to a possible repeat state softball championship.

But when the Lady Falcons opened the door with some early errors, the Lady Hawks walked right in and helped themselves to a lead and later took more in a 6-1 sectional victory.

A one-out walk and three straight singles staked the Lady Falcons to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. It may have been more but a runner was tagged out after overrunning second base.

Chezney Whipker manufactured the tying run in the bottom of the second after her two-out single. She advanced on a grounder and drew a throwing error, racing around to bring Green Hill into a 1-1 tie.

Green Hill had its infield tarped during the overnight rain. But the outfield was probably wet, possibly leading to Lincoln County left-fielder Chloe McKeen losing her footing while trying to position herself to catch Lilly Buckley's line drive hit right toward her. The ball fell and bounded away from McKeen to allow Emily Legrand, who had singled, to score, putting the Lady Hawks ahead in the third inning. Though McKeen never touched the ball, the play was scored an error.

"Something we've talked about the whole four years is we have to limit back-to-back negatives and whether that's a walk and a hit or a hit and a hit or an error and an error, we have to eliminate them when we're on defense and we have to pile them up when we're on offense," Lady Hawks coach Savannah Sanders said. "We were able to do that tonight. We made their mistakes hurt and that's what softball's about."

Then the Lady Hawks went back to their base attack — their bats. Maliyah Wilkins hit her third home run in two games as she took Mia Brown deep over the wall in left-center field in the fifth to give Green Hill a little breathing room at 3-1.

Green Hill put the game away in the sixth with three runs as the Lady Hawks batted around despite the first two batters of the inning being retired. Wilkins was hit by a pitch before singles by Whipker, Kendall Davis and pinch-hitter Parker Herrin made it 6-1.

Kyla Harris overcame the early Lincoln County run to hold the Lady Falcons to four hits and three walks while striking out three in six innings. Herrin, a veteran of tough outs in last year's state tournament run, struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh as Green Hill advanced to the state with a 41-6-2 record.

"Our pitching was phenomenal tonight," Sanders said. "(Brown) kept us off balance. We weren't really ourselves tonight. I think we'll be able to overcome that. When we can have a bad night at the plate and still put up six runs, that's huge for us. The bottom of our lineup did a great job. We had the hits when we had to have the hits. We had good baserunning and baserunning won us the game."

Brown was solid for Lincoln County in giving up six hits and two walks (both in the sixth) with a strikeout and a hit batter. But the Lady Falcons, who lost to the Lady Hawks 5-4 in a weekend tournament last month, returned to Fayetteville with a final mark of 29-14.

"I knew it was going to be a tough game," Sanders said. "When you're one of the final 16 teams and you want to make it to the big dance, you're going to do whatever it takes.

"I thought we were a little tight at first. But we were able to power through it."

Seven seniors are listed on Green Hill's roster as the school's first four-year class. Four started the sectional and Herrin was in the middle of the action at the end of their final game on the Hill.

"We have the catchphrase 'Build the Hill' and they really have built this place into what it is," Sanders said. "We think a lot of our program. We think it's starting to become somewhere that people want to be. We want to build a legacy here...and that group has done that."

A part of the legacy is last year's championship sign on the center-field wall. Plenty of space is available to add more.

"Our kids aren't complacent," Sanders said. "We played one of the hardest schedules in the state, I think, and it's got us ready for what we're going to see this week. We're going to see good teams, but we've seen good teams all year. Your goal isn't to win state every year. It's to make the opportunity to be the final eight and see what happens from there."

Green Hill opened state against Stewarts Creek, to take on Henry County or Knoxville Halls today

Green Hill returned to Murfreesboro yesterday and opened with Stewarts Creek (28-14). Henry County (26-4-1) and Knoxville Halls (34-7) met in the other half of the bracket. The winners will meet at 10 a.m. today and the losers at 4:30 p.m. at Starplex #1. The bracket final round will be at 10 a.m. Thursday with the "if necessary" game at 4 p.m.

TSSAA changed the state softball format to a pair of four-team double-elimination brackets like baseball with the bracket winners meeting for a one-game championship at Middle Tennessee State on Friday. The 4A title tilt will be at 10 a.m. Walker Valley (30-7-1), Dobyns Bennett (31-11), Nolensville (31-7-2) and Arlington (31-4) are in the other bracket.

Mt. Juliet turned away from state with eighth-inning loss

NOLENSVILLE — Mt. Juliet's bid to return to state for the first time in more than a decade ended in heartbreaking fashion Sunday afternoon when host Nolensville walked off with a 3-2 eight-inning win in the sectional.

Sydney Dickinson's eighth-inning single sent the Lady Knights to state with a 31-7-2 record.

The Lady Bears, seeking their first trip to the round of 8 since 2012, finished a 27-13 season.

"They played hard and left it all on the field," Mt. Juliet coach Kevin Costley wrote in a text. "All you can ask for.

"My heart is broken for them."

Playing two days later than expected after the field was not covered by a tarp during Friday's rain, the Lady Bears jumped to the first lead in the third inning on Annalise Mecklenburg's RBI double and Kendall Bucher's sacrifice fly.

Nolensville tied the score in the fourth on a single by Peyton Vieira and a double by Lexi Sparkman.

Mt. Juliet's Taylor Haymans and Nolensville's Madi Creasman kept the tie going in the circle until extra innings. Creasman allowed nine hits and a walk while striking out five. Haymans surrendered seven hits and two walks while striking out seven.

Mecklenburg had three of Mt. Juliet's hits."