Cornersville knocks battered Grace from state

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Based on the number of ice packs taped to players’ body parts, Grace Academy’s softball team was truly the walking wounded when it left the Starplex on Thursday night.

The Lady Golden Eagles had just been put of their first state tournament with a 3-0 loss to Cornersville in a Class A losers-bracket semifinal.

Several muscles and joints may have been hurt, but not the team’s pride after a fourth-place finish.

“I’m proud of the girls,” Grace coach Tina Walker said. “They fought all the way. We knew we were not 100 percent coming into this game. We knew it was going to be tough, but we thought we just might be able to keep it going. These girls are fighters.”

No Lady Golden Eagle was any more banged up than Walker’s daughter, Lacye, one of their pitchers and customarily their No. 3 batter, who tried to play through everything from shoulder and hip injuries to leg-muscle problems. She pitched in relief in the game. Her father and assistant coach, Alan, said there wasn’t any way she could go seven innings. She did go 2-for-3.

Senior Courtney Patrick got the start and gave up an unearned run in the second inning. Cornersville (35-5), which will play in this morning’s losers-bracket final, got an RBI double from Amanda Griggs and an RBI single from Sarah King in the fourth.

Grace got to the losers’ semifinal by rallying past Friendship Christian 3-2.

Lady Commanders center fielder Sarah Huddleston made a sliding catch of Patrick’s fly in the top of the seventh, but Noel Bartley was able to tag up and score the winning run. Mara Reeves started the inning with a single and scored the tying run when Bartley’s single was misplayed and rolled to the fence.

Grace trailed 2-0 after three innings and did not score its first run in that game until the sixth.

The Lady Golden Eagles set a season school record for victories with thier 33-9-2 record, and it came against a beefed-up schedule.

“I think our schedule being tougher really paid off. I think that’s what made the difference,” Tina Walker said of her young team. “It’s not easy to get here, but I think the experience we gained will help us next year, especially having everybody a year older and a little more mature.”