Lady Mavs moving on
Anderson County catcher Aundria Long hauls in a pop-foul against Oak Ridge on Monday night in the district tournament at Halls.
Three errors in the Lady Mavs’ infield led to a Karns run in the first inning. It could have been worse for Anderson County as the Lady Beavers left runners on second and third.
Three more infield errors in the second inning led to another Karns run as the Lady Beavers left the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the second the Lady Mavs loaded the bases when Emelia Yelencich, Molly Muncy, and Courtney Lively each singled but Anderson County left the bases loaded and trailed 2-0 after two innings.
In the bottom of the third, the Lady Mavs tied the game when Gracie Webb led-off with a base hit to right. She scored on a double by Yelencich, who hit a frozen rope down the left field line.
Muncy then doubled to right to score Yelencich and tie the game at 2-2.
The Lady Beavers added a run in the top of the third to reclaim the lead but Anderson County tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Hannah Bruce led-off with a base hit and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Aundria Long. Maddie Sickau then doubled in Julianne Smith, who was inserted as a courtesy runner for Bruce.
Karns again took the lead in the fifth when they added a run to go ahead 4-3.
They added a run in the sixth to extend their lead to 5-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, Long reached on a two-out single. Maci Houser entered the game as a courtesy runner and scored on a triple to right by Sickau. But that was all the Lady Mavs could get in the inning.
Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Anderson County was retired in order to end the game.
Sickau finished 2-4 with a double, triple, and two RBI.
Yelencich and Muncy were each 2-4 with a double and an RBI.
Bruce took the loss as she pitched seven innings and allowed one earned run on eight hits with five strikeouts.
“We did the same thing to them [Karns] last year. They beat us twice and we beat them in the first round of the district tournament so they go some payback,” said Allen Russell, head coach of the Lady Mavericks.
“All season long our defense has been pretty solid. I don’t think we had more than two or three errors in a game all year. Against Karns we had eight. Our infield struggled and the infield was hard and taking some bounces on us. We couldn’t handle them and we had some younger players who have been playing great all year, finally play like younger players,” he said.
The loss sent Anderson County into the loser’s bracket for a matchup with Oak Ridge, a team the Lady Mavs run-ruled twice in the regular season.
The Lady Wildcats proved to have a short memory concerning those earlier losses as they battled Anderson County for seven innings before falling by a score of 1-0.
Each team had two hits but the two for the Lady Mavs came in the third inning when Sickau picked up a two-out single and stole second. Muncy then stepped up and drove a long single to center to score Sickau.
It was the only run scored in the game as Bruce made it stand up.
She pitched all seven innings for the shutout and struck out eight.
“I think Oak Ridge just played the best game they’ve ever played. They played error-free ball. Their centerfielder had two or three great catches but a win is a win,” Russell said.
The Lady Mavs advance to play the loser of the Gibbs-Halls game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Halls.