CCS edges Gibbs, then eliminated

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — It was fun while it lasted.

That’s what Laura Curtis said Thursday after Chattanooga Christian was bumped from the Class AA high school softball state tournament at Starplex No. 2. The Lady Chargers defeated Gibbs 5-4 in nine innings earlier in the day before suffering a 7-1 loss to Covington in a losers-bracket semifinal.

Curtis was one of seven seniors who helped the Lady Chargers advance to their first state tournament.

“The last game took a lot out of us,” Curtis said. “You’ve got to push through every ballgame.”

Winning pitcher Sarah Cousar homered with two out and none on in the first inning for Covington (37-3), which moves on to this morning’s losers-bracket final. It added three-run rallies in the third and fifth innings.

“That was a good team,” CCS coach Emily Pensinger said. “They’ve got speed, good pitching, good defense and they can hit. We do, too. Once you get to the tournament it’s who you play and how you play against them. All these teams are great teams.”

CCS pitcher Jennifer Long was 2-for-2, including a one-out double in the fourth inning. Courtesy runner Tori Dixon later scored on Marie Beaty’s triple.

Dixon scored the winning run from second base in the morning game on Shelby Morgan’s two-out, line-drive single to right-center field. She was aboard after Long’s third hit of that game started the uprising with one out. Sarah Hundley’s single advanced Dixon into scoring position.

Long’s pop-fly single in the sixth tied it for the Lady Chargers, who trailed 3-0 early. The victory was the second for CCS (24-10) after it lost its tournament opener.

“It was great just to be here and even better to win,” Pensinger said. “It was a lot of fun watching other teams and just being in this environment.

“We did take our lumps early in the season. Our record may not look like one for the fourth-place team in the state, but we learned from our mistakes and learned from our losses.”