ALBERTVILLE – Before the 2022 softball season began, Cherokee County High School coach Brad Weaver built the Lady Warriors a tough schedule with the postseason in mind.
The Lady Warriors began to turn things on toward the end of the season by winning the Class 4A, Area 9 championship over White Plains. They split their first two East Central Regional games at Albertville’s Sand Mountain Park on Tuesday, defeating Westminster Christian 4-2 before losing to Madison County 16-11.
On Wednesday, the Lady Warriors knew what was ahead of them. They had to win three games to reach the state tournament. They opened the day defeating Oneonta 7-2, then held on to outlast White Plains 8-7 to earn a rematch with Madison County.
By his own admission, Weaver said the Lady Warriors were out of gas by the time they had their second chance at Madison County. Their season ended with an 8-0 loss.
Madison County pitcher Taytum Lowe held the Lady Warriors to just four hits. She retired 12 batters on ground outs.
“We struggled last night with this team,” Weaver said. “We had too many errors last night, and that hurt us today. They played two (games). We played three – two back to back. I’d like to seen what we’d done had we swapped roles, but we asked for three today. We got two (wins), but I just feel like our girls ran out of gas.”
One constant for the Lady Warriors all tournament was catcher Lanie Williams. She delivered three hits, including a triple and double, and drove in four runs against Oneonta. She added three more hits, drove in three runs, and had a walk against White Plains. Williams had one of the Lady Warriors’ four hits against Madison County in the season finale.
“She had her confidence up today when it mattered the most. I felt like she came through,” Weaver said. “She crushed the ball most of the time. She’s just seeing the ball well and hitting the ball well. She was great behind the plate. She got solid for this tournament, and pretty much was all year. This tournament she really showed out and stepped up for us.”
Eighth grade pitcher Emma Hill also performed well. She led the Lady Warriors to both of their tournament wins on Wednesday before giving way to Abby Lea against Madison County.
“This was her first regional,” Weaver said. “She was gassed after White Plains and we knew it, but she gave us everything she had. She’s just an eighth grader and she handled the pressure well. She’ll be there for us next year. We’ve still got five more years with her.”
But one Lady Warrior Cherokee County won’t have the services of next season is senior center fielder Carson Coley.
“She’s a solid fielder, and her on-base percentage was great. She’s going to be missed,” Weaver said. She’s our only senior, and she played her butt off for us. She’s worked hard. Everything she gave us was 100 percent.”
And not just Williams, Hill and Coley. Weaver said he’s proud of what all the Lady Warriors gave him this season.
“When we started scheduling, we wanted to face (teams) as hard as we could so when we get to this point at regionals, and hopefully state, that we’d seen the best we could see before we got here,” he said. “These girls fought through all kinds of stuff. They overcome adversity. They fought their tails off for us. We started off 0-9 and we could’ve dropped our heads. It could’ve been a long season, but we fought back. We battled with great teams and beat a lot of great teams. We beat White Plains three times.
“These girls fought extra hard this year. They played tough, and my heart goes out to these girls. They played their butts off.”