Brooks Pitches, Hits North Greene Into Final

ELIZABETHTON — North Greene’s Hannah Brooks got the best of a pitchers’ duel and also had the decisive hit in the Lady Huskies’ 2-0 win over Cloudland in the winners bracket final of the District 1-A softball tournament on Thursday at Unaka High School.

North Greene, now 12-8, earned a spot in the championship game on Friday, awaiting the winner of the Cloudland-Unaka elimination game. The Lady Huskies also secured a spot in the Region 1-A tournament.

“It is a credit to our team,” North Greene coach Danny Weems said. “I think they played really good tonight, and they played really good against University High the other night. So we’ve had two good games here in the district tournament. Hopefully we can get on a roll here in the postseason to keep it going, but there’s still a lot to play for.”

Brooks held Cloudland to just two hits and struck out 13, while also going 3-for-3 with two RBI. She drove in both North Greene runs with a single in the bottom of the third inning.

“She has had a really good season and she is a really good player, and she is coming up big for us in some big moments,” Weems said.

In the North Greene third, Heidi Harmon reached on a one-out bunt single, Matti Phillips walked and both moved up on a wild pitch.

Brooks then grounded a single into left field to score Harmon and Phillips to make it 2-0.

Cloudland’s Reagan Turbyfill also went the distance in the circle. She gave up four hits, walked four and struck out nine.

Saharra McKinney and Peyton Preswood had Cloudland’s two hits.

“They are scrappy,” Weems said of Cloudland. “You know any Matt Birchfield team is really scrappy, and we know they’ve got a lot of really good athletes on that team and they fight and fight and fight. So we knew what to expect when we faced them, and we were just fortunate tonight to get the win.”