This past weekend, the Midway Lady Waves and their huge caravan of supporters traveled down Highway 68, across the dam and into Rhea County. The Midway girls were set to square off against 16 teams from all over Middle and East Tennessee. The Lady Waves landed in Dayton on Friday still looking for some respect after the loss of All-State pitcher Hannah Colyer and four other talented seniors.
The tournament would start with three pool play games. Those pool games would determine their seeding for single elimination play on Saturday. For the Lady Waves, this tournament was like a grueling 15-round boxing match. The girls got bruised and bloodied. They got knocked down. Maybe a couple of standing eight counts. But they kept coming back, punch after punch. The Green team fought themselves all the way to the championship game, where they continued to receive blow after blow. However, the Midway girls would not throw in the towel. The championship game would not be decided until the last inning, when the Lady Waves were finally defeated.
In Friday’s pool play, the Lady Waves started out with the powerful Meigs County Lady Tigers, tournament host and tournament favorite. The Lady Tigers have seven seniors, including six who already know where they’re playing college ball. The Lady Wave faithful got a shot of hope early on, when lead-off batter Danielle Borum took the first pitch of the game and drove the ball over the center field fence. But the powerful Meigs hitters came right back with two homers of their own in the bottom of the inning and never looked back. This would be the worst knockdown blow of the tournament for Midway.
Unknown to the Lady Wave faithful, the SOR girls would meet another of the strongest teams in the tournament in Friday’s second game. Johnson County had a top-of-the line pitcher, but the Lady Waves were up to the task. A triple by Dee Borum, a double by Alex Richardson and a nice hit by Taylor Narramore would give the green a 2-0 lead in the first inning. That was the score until the bottom of the second, when Johnson County would get three runs to take a 3-2 lead. But the Green came right back in the third. Richardson was hit by a pitch and Narramore doubled. Then, Midway catcher Paige Moree singled to score Richardson, and senior Haley Patterson drove in Narramore. 4-3 Midway. Johnson County scored in the bottom to tie the game at 4. In the fourth inning, things got dicey for the Lady Waves. After a scoreless top of the inning, Johnson County drove in two runs to take a 6-4 lead. All games during the tournament where being played on a drop dead time limit. That meant when the time limit was up, the game was immediately over. It didn’t matter what part of the inning you were in. Behind 6-4, the Lady Wave fans were looking at their watches. After a strike out and a long pop out, Midway’s chances were not looking good. The next batter in the lineup was first year starter Taylr Hall, who singles to left field. Borum comes up and draws a walk to put two runners on. Time draws near! Senior pitcher Michelle Walden steps to the plate and smacks a a 2 RBI double off the right field fence to tie the game!! The Midway fans are going wild!!! The umpire calls, “Time’s up!”. Both coaches approach the umpire. Nobody likes a tie. The umpire decides to finish the inning. So with Walden on second, Parks draws a walk. Then, freshman Richardson blasts a double to left to score Walden and parks and give Midway the lead! Next up is Narramore. She sends a hard shot up the middle to score Parks and richardson and push the Lady Wave lead to 9-6. After the last out of the inning, the umpire calls, “Ball game!”. The Johnson County coaches come unglued. So, once again, the game is allowed to continue for the rest of the inning. It will seem that senior pitcher Walden has seen enough. She fields a pop out, throws a strike out and fields a grounder, which she throws to first to end the game. That gave the Lady Waves their first, but not last, dramatic finish of this tournament.
The Green returned on Saturday morning to face off in their third pool game against Whitwell. This game would decide if the Lady Waves would play in the championship bracket or the runner-up bracket. Whitwell took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. In the bottom, Walden and Parks would both single. Richardson would again knock a huge shot up the middle to score both of them. Sophomore short stop Hayley Patterson then singled to score Richardson. Sophomore Hali Morris would single to knock in Patterson. Midway had the lead and never gave ground on their way to a 6-1 win and the championship side of the tournament bracket.
The Lady Waves’ first elimanation game was against Grundy County, who was a #1 seed from another pool. After a scoreless top of the first for Grundy, Midway would start a scoring rampage. Borum opened with a double. Walden singled and Parks drew a hard fought walk. Narramore then punched a big shot to the fence to score Borum and Walden. Then, with runners on second and third, junior Paige Moree would send the outfield fans scattering with a three-run shot over the center field fence! 5-0 Waves. In the bottom of the second, with the score still 5-0, Borum would hit another great shot to the outfield fence for another double. Walden would single to score Borum. Halie Wiley went in as courtesy runner for Walden. Parks draws another walk. Wiley steals home. Patterson would single to left, scoring Parks. The lead would increase to 10-1 before Grundy made a strong run in the bottom of the last inning. But by then, it was too little too late. Midway advances with a 10-6 win.
Next up, the Lady Waves had to wait an hour and a half to play a strong Cleveland team in the tournament semifinals. Cleveland jumped on the Green 2-0 in the first. Midway scored in the bottom of the second when Borum singled to bring in Moree, who had doubled. Cleveland returned the favor by adding one in the third. Midway threatened in the third, but could not score. It was 3-1, Cleveland, with time running out. Midway opened the fourth with a single by Patterson and a double by Moree. Third baseman Morris would then singled to score both runners and tie the game at 3-3. With the time limit up, the game would be played with a runner on second base to start each half of the inning. Cleveland proceeded to put what looked like the winning runs on the board, as they scored two in the top of the sixth. The Lady Waves were behind 5-3, but they were not done. With Patterson on second, Moree opened the inning with a giant blast to center field for an RBI triple. 5-4 Cleveland. Morris then sacrificed to score Moree and tie the game. Hall would single, then be substituted with Wiley to put more speed on base. Borum came up and singled to move the potential winning run, Wiley, to second base. Walden then singled and moved Wiley to third. With one out, senior Parks drove a hard shot at the short stop, who scooped the ball and fired home. But she was too late for the speedster Wiley, who beat the throw and got the winning run.
The Lady Waves had hoped for a rematch with Meigs County, who everybody thought would be in the championship game. That was not to be, however, as the Lady Tigers were downed by Sequatchie County in the other semifinal game. So the championship game would be a match-up between the Midway Lady Waves and Sequatchie County. The first inning was disastrous for the Lady Waves, as Sequatchie blasted two over the fence and grabbed a 4-0 lead. The Green team was hitting the ball, but couldn’t plate any runs. Sequatchie added another run in the second and one more in the fourth, and it looked like a long game for the Green team. In the bottom of the fourth, however, Midway began to see a glimmer of hope. Walden, Parks and Richardson all singled. After an out, Patterson got a big hit to score two runs. Morris sacrificed to score another, and Hall singled to bring in one more. Sequatchie 6, Midway 4. In the bottom of the fifth, Walden would get her second crank of the year, going deep to left field. Richardson would double but be left stranded. The Lady Waves had cut the lead to 6-5 with some great hitting. But the wheels were about to come off, and Sequatchie would not be denied. They punished the Lady Waves with hit after hit in the top of the sixth and pushed six more runs across the plate. 
Midway had went to Dayton and performed well. Out of the 16 teams the lady Waves had made their mark knocking off Johnson Co. and Cleveland. To have rallied in the championship was just one example of the “no quit” attitude these girls displayed the entire tournament. Next up Rockwood and the Lady Waves first district game of the year. The home game against the Lady Tigers on Monday has been called off due to rain. The girls will travel to Rockwood on Tuesday.