Nyla Halfacre cranks a double early in the game on Thursday.
photo by Greg Davick
They had an old-fashioned slugfest at Chattanooga Christian Thursday evening.
Girls Preparatory School provided the opposition for the CCS Lady Chargers in a key region softball battle that the Lady Chargers won by the most slim of margins, improving to 16-12-1 with the heart-stopping 9-8 victory.
But it was an interesting game for sure as both teams collected a dozen hits and seemingly scored at will and the final outcome wasn’t determined until the final pitch. Out of a combined 24 hits, 10 went for extra bases, including nine doubles and one home run. There were also 10 walks on the day, so it’s not surprising that both teams left more than enough runners stranded, GPS with seven and Chattanooga Christian with 11.
“We’re just trying to build a little momentum as we enter our final week of regular-season play and this should help as we’re starting to come on,” said CCS coach Steven Rogers following the game.
“I thought we hit the ball well and you normally have good results when you do. And we just had to make the play at the end to win, but we made some great plays when we had to have them and I thought Nyla Halfacre had a great game,” the coach praised his slugging third baseman, who had three doubles in four at-bats and drove in four runs while scoring twice.
GPS coach London Cornelius wasn’t thrilled to come out on the short end of the score, but she was more than upbeat about the way her girls just kept battling until the very end.
“I think we found some fight today,” she began after the Bruisers fell to 9-11 overall.
“This is a tough one to lose for sure, but I’m really proud of the way we battled and kept coming back. Unfortunately, we just came up a run short,” she added.
GPS took the lead with two runs in the second, only to see the Lady Chargers tie it in the bottom of the inning. CCS then added two more in the third before GPS tied it with two in the top of the fourth.
The Lady Chargers then had a big time batting in the bottom of the inning where they batted around, using five hits and a walk to score four runs. CCS added another run in the bottom of the sixth for a seemingly-comfortable 9-4 lead as GPS only had one final time at the plate.
The Bruisers may have been down, but they were a long way from out as they made things interesting by scoring four runs on five hits and a walk.
Leadoff hitter McKamey Bratcher led off the GPS seventh with an infield single and advanced to second on a groundout by Addie Beard. Emma Leinberger’s line single up the middle drove Bratcher home before a towering two-run homer to center by Isabella Jenkins made it 9-7.
Autumn Hughes then came in to pitch in relief of Hannah Smith and promptly walked Bailey Long. Ansley Giffin then grounded to first for the second out before a double by Sylia Hicks plated Long to make it 9-8.
Ansley Bratcher then lined a single up the middle and she advanced to second on the throw home as Hicks was held at third. Haidyn Lawrence, who had driven in a run with a sharp single in the fourth, then grounded to Hughes, who then made the throw to Erin Matthews at first to end the game.
Halfacre was the only player on either team with three hits, but they were all big with four RBIs to boot. Hannah Blevins, Emily Matthews and Smith all had two hits for the Lady Chargers.
GPS had five players with two hits apiece, including the two Bratcher sisters, Leinberger, Jenkins and Giffin.
GPS will now get ready to host arch-rival Baylor in its final regular-season game on Tuesday while CCS is scheduled to play at Signal Mountain on Monday before hosting Knoxville Webb in a doubleheader on Tuesday before going to Baylor on Thursday.
GPS 020 200 4 – 8 12 0
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 022 401 x – 9 12 1
Giffin, Jenkins (3), Giffin (4) and Long; Smith, Hughes (7) and Emily Matthews.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)