Hiwassee Dam – For six full innings things went about as good as it could get for the Lady Devils, but then the 7th inning happened. After building a 4-0 lead over the first six innings, Hiwassee Dam scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th to take a 5-4 walk off win from Swain.
The Lady Devils scored first in the fourth inning. Senior Kendall Bowers led off the inning with a solid base hit to left field and was able to stretch it into a double. Kenzie Eagleman drove Bowers home with the first run of the game on a solid single to left. Stacey Griggs followed with a single of her own. Both Eagleman and Griggs advanced to third and second. Ashton Younce laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Eagleman from third. Swain could not come up with anything further in the fourth.
Then in the top of the seventh the Lady Devils struck again for what appeared to be insurance runs. With 2 outs, Brayden Taylor reached first on a bunt single, Kendall Bowers quickly followed with another single. On alert base running both Taylor and Bowers moved up a base with a steal. Kenzie Eagleman rifled a shot to deep right center field, scoring both Taylor and Bowers, moving Eagleman all the way to third on the play. Swain was unable to score again, but went to the bottom of the seventh with a 4-0 lead.
“It was a tough loss for us,” commented Lady Devil Head Coach Toby Burrell following the loss. “I’m tickled with the way we played though, our players had some good at bats, especially Kendall and Kenzie, against one of the best pitchers in our conference. Stacey was fantastic, she went toe-to-toe with Hiwassee’s pitcher. We just haven’t had enough time as a team to work on defensive situations, and that really hurt us down the stretch.”
Stacey Griggs picked up a tough luck loss, her first of the year in the circle. Griggs threw six and one third innings gave up 6 hits and struck out 8 while yielding no earned runs.
At the plate Kendall Bowers was 3-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Kenzie Eagleman was 2-3 with 3 runs batted in a run scored and a stolen base. Ashton Younce was also 2-3 with a run battend in and a stolen base.