Green Wave still after first state victory
By BRAD GASKINS, gaskinsb@knews.com
May 22, 2007
knoxnews.com
MURFREESBORO — A state-tournament softball win eluded Midway High School once again Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Green Wave, making their third Class A state appearance in as many years, were defeated 4-2 at McKnight Park by tournament newcomer East Robertson.
All six runs in the game were scored in the second inning, with East Robertson (33-10) benefiting from one of several Midway (24-10) errors.
“You’ve got to make the routine plays,” Midway coach Amy Cawood said. “Fly balls, you’ve got to catch. Balls that are hit right at you, you’ve got to catch them.
“We didn’t that inning, and it hurt us. It hurt us bad, and we just never could recover.”
A single to right field by Chelsea Carter scored the first run, and a single from the next batter, Anna Fisher, loaded the bases.
Heather McHenry walked to make it 2-0. Two batters later, Kaeli Jo Wells hit the ball hard off the glove of Midway second baseman Kelsey Hayes, allowing two runs to score on what was ruled an error.
“We had a couple errors and that really made a big difference in the game,” Midway sophomore pitcher Hannah Colyer said. “We just need to have less errors and hit more.”
Midway cut it to 4-2 in the bottom of the inning as Alex Coffman’s single to left field scored Hayes and Krystal Rue, both of whom reached base on singles.
Midway threatened in the seventh with two outs and runners on first and second, but Carter recorded her seventh strikeout to secure East Robertson’s win.
“This is our first trip to state, and that’s our first state win,” East Robertson coach Kevin Evans said. “We feel we’re a much better ball team than what we showed today. But, you know, it’s about nerves (and) jitters and all the hype that we’ve had all week.
“You saw how many people we had here. We’re a little single-A school, and we’ll probably bring more people than anybody. Our community is behind us and we don’t want to disappoint them.”
Midway plays against the Trinity Christian/Friendship Christian loser in the losers’ bracket at 11 a.m. EDT today.
“We’ll come back, get our game face on and try to play our game,” Cawood said. “That wasn’t our game today.”
Midway is yet to win a state-tournament game, eliminated each of the past two years with a loss in the first game of the losers’ bracket.
“We know what we’ve got to do,” said catcher Kayla Mundy, Midway’s lone senior and one of two upperclassmen. “We’re going to step it up tomorrow and try to win.”