By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – Cherokee County High School freshman Sydni Frost was walking in to the Lady Warriors’ softball field on Saturday morning and noticed the back of someone’s t-shirt. It was the team’s county softball tournament three-peat shirt from last year and it read “protect the tradition.”
“I was like ‘You know what, that’s my job. I’m not doing this for me. I’m not doing this for anybody. I’m doing this for the program and for Cherokee County.’” Frost said.
Frost took those words to heart, and she wore them on her sleeve in the Cherokee County softball tournament championship game.
She tossed five innings and gave up an unearned run on four hits with no walks and six strikeouts. She was also 3-for-3 at the plate in the Lady Warriors’ 8-1 victory over Sand Rock. Frost’s effort earned her the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honor.
“It means a lot,” Frost said. “I’ve been working for this and it’s good to see it finally pay off. I’ve been kind of down at the plate, especially the first game against Sand Rock. I knew I had to come out here and trust myself, trust my coaches and what they tell me, just try and relax in the box.”
Lady Warrior head softball coach Heather Hawk trusted in Frost to get the job done in the circle and at the plate on Saturday in the biggest game of the team’s season thus far.
“In the facility warming up (Saturday morning), she was like ‘You’re pitching, and you’re up in the lineup too,’” Frost said. “I was kind of nervous, but I was like ‘My coach trusts me. I’ve got to trust myself too.’”
And trust in herself, her teammates, and her coaches she did.
“For her to come back from being mentally broken a little bit on Thursday night (against Sand Rock) to coming out and being the elite athlete that she is, we’re extremely proud of her as coaches,” Hawk said.
“You’ve got to trust your kids, and they also have to trust you. I tell them repeatedly ‘Let me make the mistakes as a coach. You just play the game.’ They’re developing that trust with us right now, and we’re starting to see more and more of that. We have a lot of young athletes who need that encouragement and that push. I feel like as a coaching staff we’re getting that for them.”
After a scoreless inning and a half, the Lady Warriors (6-5) batted around in the bottom of the second and scored four runs to help Frost settle into a groove. Cherokee County added an unearned insurance run in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.
“They did a good job of putting pressure on us with bunts,” Sand Rock coach Josh Bates said. “They’ve got good speed. Any time you’ve got good speed and you can hit the ball in the dirt, it makes it hard on your defense. They capitalized on that.
“They also got some timely hits to the outfield that we didn’t make good plays on. They were able to push some runs across. They capitalized when they needed to and that was the difference in the ball game.”
Sand Rock (8-4) finally got on the scoreboard on a run-scoring single to center by Molly Grace Lay in the top of the fifth to make it a 5-1 game, but the Lady Warriors tacked on two more runs in the bottom half of the inning on Kar’leigh Bowman’s single to center to make the score 7-1.
Emma Hill came in to relieve Frost in the sixth. She closed out the game striking six of the seven Lady Wildcat batters she faced. The only hit she allowed was Alyvia McMichen’s double to right with one out in the sixth.
Izzy Patterson went 2-for-4 at the plate with double and drove in a run for the Lady Warriors. Emma Eberhart was also 2-for-4. Sofie Dawson went 1-for-2 with a walk. Aubrey Pack was 1-for-2 and Bowman went 1-for-3.
Macy Martin, Emma Sipsy, and Aubie Camp each added a hit for the Lady Wildcats. Martin suffered the loss after working five innings. She finished with three strikeouts.
Sand Rock 9, Cedar Bluff 7
CENTRE – Sand Rock advanced to the county championship game by outlasting Cedar Bluff 9-7 in an elimination game on Saturday morning.
Sipsy led the Lady Wildcats with a 3-run homer to left in the top of the first inning and a solo shot to left in the third. She was also intentionally walked in the fifth, and earned the win in the circle with six strikeouts.
The game was a back and forth battle. Trailing 5-4 in the top of the fifth, the Lady Wildcats sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs to take a 9-5 lead.
Cedar Bluff (4-7) didn’t back down. The Lady Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a two-run game, but ran out of time.
Logan Goza and Paityn Walker both went 2-for-3 at the plate for the Lady Tigers. Goza doubled for one of her hits and drove in a pair of runs. Walker scored a run and drove in another. Ciana Smith doubled, walked twice, and scored a run.
“That was a tough battle,” Bates said. “Cedar Bluff’s got a good team. They played us tooth and nail. It was a back and forth game, which I expected it to be. Our kids competed all weekend and that’s what I’m proud of.”
