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Rylee Rawls had one of her best games at bat against Murphy
Gary Ayers
news@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Call it extra motivation. Call it revenge. Call it a laser-focus to beat your archrival. But you can call it the biggest win of the year for the Lady Devils softball team after an intense come from behind win 5-4 on the road at Murphy.
“Our mindset wasn’t any different. We felt like we needed to clean things up a bit and have better at bats,” said Head Coach Toby Burrell following the dramatic come-from-behind victory against a Bulldog team that was 9-0 in conference play entering Friday’s game and had edged Swain 4-3 the previous Monday.
With Swain down 3-1 entering the top of the seventh inning, Rylee Rawls smacked a double with one out. Kennedy Anthony followed with a base hit and then stole second. With two runners in scoring position, Carley Teesateskie had two strikes before ripping a triple to right-center field to tie the game at 3-3.
With Teesateskie on third base, Faith Woodard, also with two strikes, smashed a home run to left-center field for what proved to be the winning runs.
But Murphy wasn’t finished. With the Lady Devils up 5-3 in the bottom half of the seventh inning, Murphy had a runner at third base with the potential tying run at the plate, but pitcher Rylee Rawls struck out the Bulldog clean-up hitter and then coaxed a ground ball to second baseman Kaley Parker for the games’ final out.
The game pitted arguably the two best sophomore pitchers in the Smoky Mountain Conference against each other for the second time in five days. Murphy’s Paisley Johnson and Swain’s Rawls both pitched two outstanding games for the week. Johnson, now 12-1 overall with 123 strike outs, only 13 walks and an era of only 0.81, suffered her first loss of the year while giving up ten hits Friday while giving up seven hits, striking out twelve with three walks in the first rivalry game.
Rawls, going the distance in both games, gave up only six hits while striking out eight with only one walk in the winning effort. Rawls gave up eight hits with 12 strike outs and only three walks in Monday’s one-run loss.
The defensive effort was solid for the Lady devils also with Woodard and Parker combining for ten put-outs with three assists.
But getting ready for Friday’s big game was not without concern for coaches, fans and players alike. The Lady Devils lost center-fielder Molleigh Woodard, Faith’s sister, to an emergency appendectomy Thursday night. Molleigh had started in the outfield all season and was the lead-off hitter.
“We plugged in Makenzee Bird and gave her reps in Thursdays’ practice,” said Burrell. “Makenzee ended up making a tremendous catch in this game.”
“On a suggestion from my wife, we lead off with Rylee and moved some people around, and it ended up paying off in that big seventh inning for us,” said Burrell.
Rawls had one of her best games with the bat going 3-4 with one double while scoring two runs. Teesateskie was 3-4 with three huge RBI’s and two triples. Faith Woodard was 2-4 with two RBI’s and the aforementioned homer.
Swain improved to 5-4 in conference play with three games left in regular season play.