Elizabethton took care of business on Tuesday night.
The Lady Cyclones pulled away to take a 12-4 victory over Unicoi County in a District 1-3A elimination game in Bristol. With the win, Elizabethton advanced to Wednesday’s elimination game against David Crockett in Bristol.
The first inning was a battle.
Mollie Johnson opened the game with a single and Emma O’Quinn moved Johnson to second base with a sacrifice bunt. Lela Byd hit a single to score Johnson to give EHS a 1-0 lead.
Elizabethton continued the inning as Sadie Williams hit a double. Mikinna Blackwell hit a single to plate a run, while Lily McDuffie and Jozey Reece pushed runs across to give EHS a 4-0 lead after the top of the first.
Unicoi County, however, countered with four runs of their own in the home side to tie the game at 4-4 after a complete inning.
From there, Elizabethton took control.
Byrd hit a home run over the center field fence with two outs, while A Heading hit a single to plate Williams. That gave EHS a 6-4 advantage after the second.
Neither team was able to get anything going in the third inning.
EHS scored four more runs in the fourth with O’Quinn, Byrd, and Heading pushing runs across while Blackwell hit a home run to give EHS a 10-4 lead.
The Lady Cyclones were able to keep Unicoi at bay while Byrd hit a home run in the top of the sixth and EHS walked a run home in the seventh to secure the win.
Byrd went 4-for-5 with three RBI, while Blackwell had four RBI on three hits. Heading had three hits and two RBI.
Williams finished the game with two hits.
Byrd picked up the win as she allowed just one earned run on seven hits with five strikeouts in six innings of work.
Faith Bennett and Kyndal Engle had three hits apiece for Unicoi.
