With each game played, the Happy Valley Lady Warriors are starting to develop a deeper level of confidence which is crucial as the district tournament approaches and Friday’s action in the Wayne Hodge State Farm tournament played at Elizabethton High School continued to help that confidence grow.
The Lady Warriors fell behind 5-0 to the Sullivan Central Lady Cougars in the first inning which included two Lady Cougar homers before responded with one in the fourth and five in the fifth to pull out a tight-fisted 6-5 victory.
“These girls showed enough heart to come back from a 5-0 deficit and win that game—that was big,” said Happy Valley Lady Warrior coach Cody Hyder. “You have a lot of good teams in this tournament.
“We are going to see some good pitching and things that are going to help you in the district tournament.”
Happy Valley struggled to get anything going early before Makela Hughes led off the fourth inning with a walk.
Maci Puckett and Claire Johnson followed with singles before a sacrifice fly off the bat of Allie Grindstaff plated Hughes making it a 5-1 contest.
The Lady Warrior defense stood strong to keep the Lady Cougars off the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning giving themselves an opportunity to pull even or go ahead.
Things started to fall into place in the top of the fifth inning with one out for Happy Valley.
Kaitlyn Roberts roped a double and was chased home on an Olivia Absher single. Kadie Havner and Hughes followed with back-to-back singles loading the bases for the Lady Warriors.
Puckett lined a single that scored both Absher and Havner making it a 5-4 contest. Johnson reached base on a fielder’s choice that eliminated Puckett at second base.
The game-winner came on a big double from Allie Grindstaff that plated Hughes and Johnson giving Happy Valley the 6-5 advantage.
With the time running out, the Lady Cougars had one last gasp at pulling even or winning.
However, the Lady Warriors were ready for the challenge and faced the minimum number of batters in the bottom of the fifth to earn the victory.
It was the second win over the Lady Cougars in two days for Happy Valley as the Lady Warriors won 17-1 on Thursday.
“We still hit the ball good, but yesterday everything we hit was to somewhere where nobody was at,” said Hyder. “It was gap shots, it was in the hole and today we hit balls hard that were right at people.”
Happy Valley 13, North Greene 3
In the day’s earlier game, the Lady Warriors had little trouble of dispatching of North Greene taking a 13-3 win.
Happy Valley scored one in the first inning, and eight in the second to blow the barn door open on their way to the win.
The Lady Warriors continued to build their lead adding one in the third inning and three more in the fourth to close out their scoring.
Olivia Absher, Kadie Havner, Makela Hughes, Claire Johnson, and Allie Grindstaff rapped out two hits apiece to lead the way offensively for Happy Valley.