TSCA selects Brickey, Cunningham to East All-State Team
Published 5:27 pm Wednesday, June 8, 2016
For the Lady Cyclones, the 2016 season has been a gift that keeps on giving.
This week, the Tennessee Softball Coaches Association released its list of post season honors, and EHS’ Kel- lie Cunningham and Lauren Brick- ey both made the 2016 East All-State Team.
For both of the soon-to-be juniors, it has been a year of big numbers.
Throughout the season, Kellie Cunningham was a force to reck- oned with on the pitching mound for the Lady Cyclones. Cunningham recorded 19 wins against just seven losses, while striking out 195 batters. She ended the season with a 1.96 ERA.
According the EHS head coach Ken Hardin, Cunningham’s style of pitching makes her a nightmare for most batters.
“Everything she throws moves a little bit,” he said. “She has good
speed, but she doesn’t overwhelm you with it. She keeps hitters off bal- ance.”
Anyone who has seen Cunning- ham pitch, knows she has a unique method. Before each pitch, Cun- ningham can be seen circling the mound as she makes her way to the back of the pitcher’s circle. It is during her prolonged setup that Cunningham gets focused on the next pitch, which according to Har- din makes her a good high-stakes pitcher.
“She is mentally strong,” Hardin said. “When something bad hap- pens, she doesn’t let it bother her. She just goes to the next pitch.”
Getting such a big honor as a sophomore doesn’t happen to often, and Coach Hardin doesn’t expect anything less from his ace pitcher.
“It should motivate her,” Hardin said. “We expect even more from her next season.”
For Brickey, her shining moments came at the plate. The Lady Cyclone maintained a .432 batting average this season, while smacking eight homeruns and recording a whopping 50 RBIs.
“It was just a great sea- son,” Hardin said. “She had fifty something RBIs, and you know, that is tremendous. That is averaging over an RBI a game. She had seven in one game against Unicoi.
“She just had big hit after big hit,” Hardin added. “And the coaches association no- tices things like that.”
This season, Brickey was also named the Three Rivers Conference Player of the Year.
Hardin said it means a lot to the program for two players to get a state accolade, and he believes that some of it has to do with the team that Brickey
and Cunningham play on. “We have a lot of other great players that these two couldn’t have got there with- out,” Hardin said. “Both of those girls would tell you that they couldn’t do it without their teammates.
“It is great for our program and players,” Hardin added.
Also making big contributions to this year’s team was Maci Herrmann, Maci West, Haley Fair, Allison Riddle, Jordan Grindstaff, Alexis Williams, Kennedy Richardson, and Abbi McKinney.
The Lady Cyclones won the region title for the first-time ever this season with a 4-2 win over the Unicoi Lady Blue Devils. EHS also won the Three Rivers Conference regular-season title.
