By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – Cherokee County High School senior softball pitcher Abby Lea wasn’t expecting to start in the circle on Monday evening against Fyffe, the Lady Warriors’ senior night.
She was about to take her spot in center field when all of a sudden, her teammates were yelling at her to come inside the circle.
Even without a lot of time to warm up, Lea proved to be on top of her game. She no-hit the Lady Red Devils through four innings before being relieved by fellow senior Grayson Tucker in the fifth.
Lea allowed just one walk and struck out eight, while Tucker allowed just one hit to Katie Edge on a single to center with two outs in the top of the fifth in the Lady Warriors’ 10-0 victory in five innings.
For good measure, Lea was also 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles, a walk and four RBIs. She ended the game with a strikeout swinging – just her second time striking out all year – but beat out a throw to first which allowed Audrey Haygood to score the walk-off run.
Haygood walked with one out to get on base for Lea to drive her in.
“I can’t be too mad about it,” Lea said of her strikeout. “I hate striking out with everything in me, but if it’s to win the game, I guess that’s what I’ve got to do.
“Coming out tonight I was like if I don’t do anything, I just want to have fun with these girls. It’s our last regular season home game. We did come out here and have fun. When you play loose and play fun you play your best, and that’s really what it’s about, having fun.”
Lea helped get things going for the Lady Warriors (27-6) in the bottom of the first inning. She walked with no outs to load the bases for senior catcher Lanie Williams. Williams delivered an infield single to score Haygood, who led off the bottom of the first with a bunt single.
Senior third baseman Anna Walker grounded out to second to score another Lady Warrior run for a 2-0 early advantage.
Cherokee County added another run in the second on Lea’s first double to left that scored Haygood, who singled to center and stole second.
The Lady Warriors sent 10 batters to the plate in the third and scored six runs to take a 9-0 lead. Lea and Williams delivered back-to-back two-run doubles to left for the big blows of the inning.
Lea ended the game an inning later in bizarre fashion after reaching on her strikeout swinging.
“Abby’s played a whole lot of ball, so she just knew on a strike three to run,” Cherokee County coach Brad Weaver said. “It puts a lot of pressure on the defense to throw it. Unfortunately she struck out, but it was a winning moment. She’ll take that. That was only her second time striking out all year, but we’ll take that.”
It was also the Lady Warriors’ first run-rule game of the season. The only inning they didn’t score with the bottom of the fourth.
“One of our goals every game is to score every inning,” Weaver said. “If we score every inning with our pitching and our defense, we have a really good chance of winning ball games, but we’ve got a long to go through area and regionals. I feel like if we keep playing well we’ll be at state. We can enjoy this win but (Tuesday) we’re going back to work at Hokes Bluff.”
Lea agreed with her head coach.
“This time last year was definitely memorable, and I’m trying to make this last year we have even better,” she said. “Tonight was a good start to that. We got our bats hot. Our defense looked good. Pitching looked good. It’s looking good for us.”
