COSBY — The North Greene Lady Huskies put off playing their final game of the season with a 4-3 win over Cosby in the Region 1-A softball tournament semifinals on Monday.
Led by pitcher Hannah Brooks and solid defense, North Greene overcame a 2-0 deficit to advance to the region championship on Wednesday at Cloudland. The Lady Huskies also earned a state sectional berth with the win.
“That was a good ball game,” said North Greene coach Danny Weems, whose Lady Huskies improve to 13-10. “(Cosby) is a good team, a state tournament team last year. We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole there, down 2-0, but our girls did what they needed to do to get back in the game, and I thought Hannah was really good tonight again.
“We executed the small ball really good late in the game, really when it was critical to do that,” he added. “We didn’t do it early in the game but we did late in the game and I think that was the difference.”
Cosby scored two runs in its first at bat, assisted by two North Greene errors. But after a scoreless second inning, the Lady Huskies pushed across three runs in the third for a 3-2 lead.
Jourdanne Marr worked a walk and Matti Phillips doubled. Brooks grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Marr being thrown out at home. However, when Brooks ran to second on the throw home, Cosby’s catcher tried to throw her out and Phillips scored to put the Lady Huskies on the board.
With two out and Brooks on second, Haley Bailey hit a double and scored on an error to tie it 2-2.
Bailey sent a pitch over the center fielder’s head, and the cut-off man missed the throw back to the infield as Bailey rounded second. Weems, who was coaching third base, saw the loose ball and sent Bailey home to make it 3-2.
“It was (a great play) by her,” Weems said of Bailey. “I think if we hit the ball and don’t strike out much, I think we’re a pretty good team and we execute the small game, especially the bottom of our lineup. We are kind of efficient when we do that.”
Cosby tied the game 3-3 in its next at bat but North Greene got back on top with some bunting in the fourth.
Kaydence Marshall reached on a bunt single and stole second base. Destiny Fillers bunted Marshall to third, and Marr reached on an error on a bunt that scored Marshall to make it 4-3.
North Greene then turned back Cosby the rest of the way with pitching and defense. In the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Eagles loaded the bases with just one out, but a force out at home and a pop fly ended the threat.
In the fifth, Cosby put runners on second and third with no outs, but Brooks struck out the next three batters to strand the runners.
And in the sixth and seventh innings, Brookes got three groundouts and three pop flys to end it.
In her complete game, Brooks gave up five hits, walked one and struck out nine. All three Cosby runs were unearned.
“(Brooks) pitched real well,” Weems said. “We had some errors early in the game, especially in the first inning. We basically gave them the two runs, but our girls didn’t get down. They overcame that and that’s good to see.”
Brooks and Bailey each went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Phillips was 2-for-4, Loren Blevins was 2-for-3 and Marshall had a hit.
After losing to Cloudland in the District 1-A championship game on Saturday, the Lady Huskies hope to return the favor in the Region 1-A title game.
“We’ve seen Cloudland five times now,” Weems said. “They’ve beat us three and we’ve beat them two. Our teams are very close. We know what they do, they know what we do. So it’s whichever team executes the best and I hope it’s us.”
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