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By Ron Marvel

Star Correspondent

The Lady Rangers made the nearly two-hour drive to Sneedville to take on the Hancock County Lady Indians in a Region 1-A semifinal game. In the end, the Lady Rangers dug a hole they couldn’t burrow themselves out of — but boy, did they go down swinging their shovels.

The Lady Indians jumped out first by scoring three runs in the bottom of the first as Calyn Seal got a base hit to plate two runs, and an error cost the Lady Rangers another. The Lady Rangers looked to come up with an answer in the bottom of the second as singles by Kaci Bare and Devalynn Harter and a walk by Saylor Conner loaded the bases, but a groundout and a strikeout on a 3-2 count ended Unaka’s threat.

The game remained 3-0 until the bottom of the fourth as Lady Rangers pitcher Kimberly Proffitt got in a groove. The Lady Indians picked up another run to make it 4-0 as Laci Bryant hit a solo home run on a fly ball that just cleared the fence in left.

Trailing in the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Rangers rallied. With two outs, Proffitt helped her cause by pushing a ground ball to right to plate Harter, who had reached earlier by way of an error. Later in the inning, with runners on second and third, Conner hit a hard ground ball past the first baseman for two RBIs, and all of a sudden it was a one-run game at 4-3.

Hancock County got four much-needed insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth, taking advantage of three issued walks and a couple of Lady Rangers errors that extended the inning and made the score 8-3 going into the final frame. Unaka would not go down quietly in that final frame. Brooklyn Campbell got things going with a double down the right-field line, and Mollie Buckles reached on a line drive to left. Freshman Kaci Bare then singled on a ground ball up the middle to score two and make the game 8-5. Harter continued the comeback with a scorcher past third to plate Buckles, and Proffitt sent Bare home on a slow roller to first. With two outs, the Lady Rangers brought the tying run to the plate, but the rally came to an end after a groundout to short.

It was a game in which the Lady Rangers outhit Hancock County 9-5, but a couple of untimely errors and leaving runners in scoring position ended their season just short of a sub-state berth. Harter led the way with three base hits, while Bare added two to pace the Lady Rangers. On the mound, Proffitt pitched well, going 4.2 innings and giving up just one earned run while striking out six and scattering four hits. She issued five walks in the game. Buckles and Bare appeared in relief.

Head coach Kenneth Chambers shared his disappointment but knows his young team’s future is bright. “We could have won this game — just some breaks here and there, and some errors we had put us in a bad spot and couldn’t get the hit when we needed to. But we are young — just one senior. Really appreciate Emma Taylor and how she led by example, just a selfless player. We had juniors step up this season, and we started to come together and start playing better ball at tournament time. I’m just really proud of this team and their hard work all season long.”