ELIZABETHTON — Hits were hard to come by in North Greene’s 3-1 win over Cloudland on Thursday at Unaka in the Region 1-A championship game.
Tthe Lady Huskies prevailed, though, despite only having three hits.
“It was a good win,” North Greene coach Danny Weems said. “Regional champions. If you had told me that at the start of the season, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the girls really improved and got the job done here today. That win on the road at Cosby gave us a little momentum and we came up here and played really well today.”
North Greene, now 14-10, clinched a home game in the Class A state sectionals against Wartburg on Friday.
“We, of course, wanted to play at home and give our players one more game at home,” Weems said. “We’re excited to be able to do that. It’s a quick turnaround, but hopefully we’ll play well and be able to take this team to the state tournament.”
Thursday’s win against Cloudland was especially sweet as the last two times the teams met, North Greene had been on the losing end. They have played six times this season, the most recent one being a 6-1 Cloudland victory in the District 1-A title game. Weems and his team were determined not to make it three in a row.
“I think our girls played with a lot of confidence,” Weems said on what the was different this time around. “I think they knew that there’s not much difference between Cloudland and ourselves. So there’s no reason for us to not come up here with confidence, even though we lost the recent two games (against Cloudland).”
A fast start proved vital to the win as the Lady Huskies scored two runs in the opening inning. After Heidi Harmon reached first on a walk, she stole second. Matti Phillips singled and took second on a lull by the defense, putting runners on second and third. Hannah Brooks drove Harmon home on a sacrifice fly and Phillips scored on an error by the Cloudland defense, 2-0.
“It was real important, after losing the last two games against them, to come out and score two in the first inning,” Weems said. “I think it probably eased our nerves a little. And then the insurance run there in the seventh, I felt really fortunate to get. They tried to make a little rally in the seventh and we held them off.”
The insurance came from yet another Cloudland error. With Loren Blevins singling and stealing to get to second, Jourdanne Marr reached first on an error. The ball was off the mark to first and Blevins scampered home, increasing the Lady Huskies’ lead to 3-0.
The Lady Highlanders attempted a last inning rally, but could only manage a one-run double before a fly ball caught by Marr ended the game.
Without the stellar pitching of Brooks, the game might’ve gone similar to the last two. Pitching a complete game, she allowed just two hits, one run, walked one and struck out 10.
“Kudos to Hannah,” Weems said. “She pitched really good today and we scored just enough to win. Hannah pitches to both sides of the plate. That’s what she was doing so effectively. Cloudland was really crowding the plate and making her hit spots. They were trying to take away some of her pitches but she was locating the ball really well.”
Brooks, Phillips and Blevins had the three hits for North Greene, with Brooks having the lone RBI.
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