On a cool, sunny Tuesday afternoon with a strong wind blowing in from center field, the two best teams in District 5-4A softball lined up to do battle, at Brenda Lawson Field.
After falling behind early, sixth-ranked Walker Valley battled back to tie, then take the lead and held off a late Cleveland push to get revenge over the 16th-ranked Lady Raiders from an earlier loss with a hard-earned win.
The 5-3 victory by the Feisty Fillies (22-5-1, 4-1 District 5-4A) equals the season district mark for both teams at 4-1.
After traveling to Maryville to battle District 5-3A leader Heritage (13-8) Friday, Walker Valley closes out the district schedule with a make-up game against McMinn County (8-15, 0-5) on May 1.
The Lady Raiders (17-12, 4-1) were to wrap up their district slate after presstime Wednesday, hosting Rhea County (9-12, 2-3), before traveling to top-ranked Silverdale Baptist Academy (37-3) Thursday. Cleveland will tangle with cross-town rival Bradley Central (8-14) on April 30.
“We've got a ton of games left. There's still a lot of ball. It's still kind of up in the air,” said Lady Raider head coach KJ Harris.
FEISTY FILLIES 5
LADY RAIDERS 3
Walker Valley's Ryan “Boogs” Presswood picked up the win for the Lady Mustangs with a complete game workout. The junior right-hander gave up nine hits, while striking out six Lady Raiders and walking two.
Roane State signee Ashley Allen took the loss for the Lady Raiders going 3.1 innings with a pair of Ks and one walk, while only allowing one earned run.
Furman signee Lily O'Bryan came in for Allen with one out in the top of the fourth and finished up with four strikeouts, five walks and allowed an earned run.
“I was just really proud of our girls,” said Walker Valley head coach Lauren Limburg. “We got down the first inning and we fought back. It was just a continual back-and-forth battle. I'm really proud of the girls for staying the course and finishing strong.”
The Lady Raiders struck the first blow in the opening inning beginning with a lead-off single to short left field off the bat of O'Bryan, who later scored on a Walker Valley throwing error.
The Feisty Fillies rallied back in the upper half of the third with a two-out infield single by Amy Benson. Benson raced home when the next batter, Alyssa Davenport, doubled off the fence down the left-field line.
East Tennessee State signee Addison Woodall picked up the third consecutive hit for Walker Valley with an RBI-single to center that put the Feisty Fillies on top.
Walker Valley tacked on two more runs in the fourth as Brylie Davis doubled down the left-field line to open the inning.
Morgan Rice reached on a Cleveland miscue in front of a Madison Thomas RBI-single to left that plated Davis. Back-to-back bases on balls allowed run No. 4 to cross the plate for the Lady Mustangs before O'Bryan and company slammed the door.
Cleveland catcher Lilly “Smalls” Mason played a huge role in keeping the damage to a minimum with a sparkling pick-off throw to third with the bases loaded.
The Fillies added a single run in the fifth with a Thomas run-scoring single to short left.
Walker Valley loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth, but another highlight reel pick off by Mason — her 10th of the season — put out the potential fire and a strikeout by O'Bryan ended the at bat.
The Lady Raiders put one more run on the board in the bottom of the seventh as Allison Farnsworth reached on an error and later scored on a ground ball.
The Lady Mustangs sat down the next two batters and Presswood canned the win with a final K.
“Our defense played well. I thought 'Boogs' (Presswood) pitched a really good game. I thought overall we had really good at bats and that was encouraging to see,” said Coach Limburg. “But, I'm really proud of the girls for finishing this game and doing what it took to win.”
“It was a fantastic game. I think Presswood threw a good game on the mound (for Walker Valley). I think their defense came up big. They weren't worried about that initial push that we gave them. We wanted to put the ball in play and see if we could open something up,” Coach Harris stated.
“Obviously, on the defensive side we would liked to have taken away a couple of mistakes. I feel like we played on our heels, especially late. We should have gone and gotten a coupe of balls defensively. But, I feel like we still have room to grow and I'm excited about postseason.”
“Any district win is a big win and I'm really proud of our girls for fighting through this. We just want to come out and compete,” Coach Limburg said of the battle for the top spot in the upcoming District 5-4A Tournament.
“We play at Maryville Heritage on Friday, so we've got a couple of practices and will clean up some stuff and go to Maryville. It's a great district win.”
