FMS goes back-to-back in state titles
With only one available pitcher in Lydia Lane, the Lady Admirals survived two 90-minute games with Lane in the circle.
After going up 4-0 in the first game, Farragut lost 6-4, but they bounced back for a 9-8 win to take the title over Meigs County, as Sophia Watkins knocked a bases-loaded RBI single down the third-base line to cement the victory and a final mark of 22-6.
“Would have liked to have played a little better in the league tournament,” head coach Nick Green said. “We got beat by Gibbs and Halls there, and we were not scheduled to go to the tournament because it’s supposed to be the top four qualifiers. A couple teams elected not to go, and we got into it and played pretty well.
“Those championship games, it was a rough night. We were down to just one pitcher, and Lydia gave us everything she had. We were able to put enough runs on the board to outscore them.”
Earlier in the tournament, FMS won its first game 9-1 then defeated Bearden 7-6 in a comeback victory. An 8-0 win over Jefferson County followed in the winner’s bracket final, slotting Farragut in the championship for the second straight year.
The Lady Admirals had to battle back from a deficit in the second game, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead. Not to be outdone, Meigs tacked on another run to tie it at 4-4 before FMS exploded for four more runs. But Meigs scored again, adding four runs of its own to tie the score and set up Watkins’ walk-off.
She finished the second game 3-for-4 at the plate while Logan Shrader went 2-for-4 in the first game and 3-for-3 in the second championship outing.
Going forward, Green is eager to see how his eight eighth-graders mesh with his Farragut High School players. But he is just as eager about next year’s middle school squad and the possibility of a three-peat.
“The eighth-graders will be freshmen this year, so we’ll see how they end up working out and contributing,” he said. “They get to practice and play with really good kids who are older than them, and they’ll get to see how to prepare. We practice on a more regular basis, five to six days a week with multiple games, so just knowing how to prepare and handle your academics and all those things.”
“Then the eighth graders coming up this year, good group with plenty of pitching and hitting. Now we graduate two pitchers out of the eighth grade class, so that’s definitely an area we will have to fill for next year. Hopefully the sixth graders from this year continue to develop and help us out, too. It’s just got to be a continuous string of players all the time.”
