Late collapse costs Farragut
Farragut High School softball coach Nick Green couldn’t disguise his frustration after his team was bounced in to the loser’s bracket of the District 4-4A Tournament Friday night, May 1.
“It wasn’t anything we did or didn’t do,” Green said after the Lady Admirals squandered a big lead en route to falling to Rhea County, 8-7, in eight innings at Bearden High School’s Kim Hazelwood Field. “Give credit to them, they were hitting the ball, but we had some plays that we didn’t make and if we make any one of those place, we win the game.”
“It was just a collapse.”
Top-seeded Farragut (29-7) darted out to a fast start against the second-seeded Lady Eagles.
After pitcher Hallie Grace Johnson struck out the side in the top of the first inning, the Lady Admirals scored two runs in the bottom of the frame as Camryn Shrader and Taylor Albright both came home on wild pitches. Farragut, however, stranded two runners on base.
Farragut would extend its advantage to 5-0 in the bottom of the second frame. That rally started with one out when Logan Jameson tripled and Shrader followed that with a two-run homer, making the score, 4-0. Johnson also had an RBI single.
After the Lady Eagles (20-4) scored in the top of the third on an RBI double by Reese Brown and a scoring single by Ella Wilkey, Farragut responded in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run by Jade Buckner, making the score 6-2
Then things unraveled for the Lady Admirals as Rhea County scored three runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead.
Farragut scored the tying run when Rhea County committed an error, but Rhea County got the eventual winning run in the top of the eighth on an RBI single by Briley Byrge.
The Lady Ads opened tournament play with a 9-0 win over Hardin Valley Academy on Thursday.
