DECATUR, Tenn. - What little rain that fell during Monday's Region 3-AA high school softball semifinal at Meigs County, did so in the bottom of the first inning when the Lady Tigers scored all of their runs in a 5-1 victory over East Hamilton.
Meigs (25-10) will play at Central in Wednesday's region final at 5:30.
The rainy home half of the first inning began with two infield outs. Then pitcher Abby Miller hit her counterpart, Morgan Boggess, with a pitch. After Chandra Clayton, who was 2-for-3 with a double, reached on an infield single, Brandi Kilpatrick drew the first of three consecutive walks. Angel Davis and Lynsey Million picked up RBIs with theirs.
Bailey Nunley was hit by a pitch, producing another run, then Rachel Davis punctuated the rally by dropping in a two-run single.
"It definitely affected our pitcher," East Hamilton coach Holly Hamilton said of the rain. "She walked more in the first inning than she has in 12 games. That put us in a hole."
McKenzie Mayes scored the Lady Hurricanes' run on a throwing error in the fourth. She and Kelsey Payne were aboard with one-out singles. Mayes had two of the four hits allowed by Boggess, who had three strikeouts.
"We played good defense all around," Davis said. "She didn't walk anybody, which is big, especially on a day like today. She didn't strike out many batters either, so we had to make plays. We've played good defense the last couple of weeks. We've had to. We haven't hit it."
• Bledsoe County 2, Upperman 0: At Baxter in a Region 4-AA semifinal, Bledsoe County took advantage of both of the Lady Bees' miscues.
The region final Wednesday will feature a rematch of the District 7 final with Bledsoe (25-11) taking on Sequatchie County at Dunlap at 6 EDT.
Faith Forgey factored into the Lady Warriors' runs, walking and scoring the first in the fifth inning and hitting a two-out RBI single in the sixth. A sacrifice bunt preceded a dropped fly that allowed the first run to score. Another error advanced Emily Dodson, who had walked, from first to third before she scored the other run.
"After the first inning we started putting the ball in play," Bledsoe coach Lydia Ritchie said. "It was a really tight ballgame. We hit when it counted and capitalized on a couple of errors. We were able to lay our bunts down, which was big. That's something we've been working on."
Winning pitcher Lydia Ritchie threw a three-hitter with two walks and seven strikeouts.
• Sequatchie County 4, DeKalb County 2: At Dunlap in a Region 4-AA semifinal, Meredith Mitchell was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored and Chasity Carlton, who also doubled, had an RBI and a run scored.
Haley Brock was 2-for-3 for Sequatchie (21-5). Winning pitcher Brooklyn Girdley threw a five-hitter with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653.