Central's Lady Purple Pounders have found themselves in a few pitchers' duels this high school softball season. Thursday against Livingston Academy in a Class AA state sectional was just another.
But one that didn't go their way.
The Lady Wildcats managed a seventh-inning run at Central, and that was all it took to down the Lady Pounders 1-0 and end their season one game short of going to the state tournament.
Livingston Academy (23-10) instead will be making the trip to Murfreesboro next week to participate in the Spring Fling.
"This is a huge deal for our school," Livingston Academy coach Kacy Bennett said. "I don't know that we've ever had a softball team make it to the state tournament. We're a basketball town, definitely."
Central junior right-hander Brooke Parrott had a no-hitter through 4 1/3 innings. Ashton Hicks broke it up with a ground-rule double to right.
In her next at-bat, Hicks hit the ball similarly but this time it rattled around in the corner and she ended up with a leadoff triple. The next batter, winning pitcher Sidney Pennycuff, singled her in.
Pennycuff pitched a three-hitter with one walk and nine strikeouts.
"She's amazing," Bennett said of her junior left-hander. "She finds a way to get it done. It's amazing where she's come from last year."
The riseball she so effectively used against the Lady Pounders is something Bennett said Pennycuff just developed this season.
"I love them to death," Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said of her players, "but they weren't disciplined at the plate. The guy behind the plate wasn't calling anything up a strike. I told them, 'Make her throw something down to you; something you can drive.' It wasn't for lack of trying. Maybe they were trying too hard."
Parrott ended up giving up five hits over the last three innings and her only walk was in the fifth.
"They made the adjustments there at the end and we didn't," Shurette said. "We should've capitalized the couple of times we had runners on."
Parrott, who totaled 11 strikeouts, ends the season with a tough-luck 15-9 pitching record to go with her ERA of slightly higher than 1.00. The game marked the 11th time Central (21-18) has been shut out this season.
"She was a great pitcher in her own right," Bennett said of Shurette, who was a teammate of hers at Tennessee Tech. "I knew she was going to have a great pitcher."
The Lady Pounders were District 6 regular-season and tournament champions and also Region 3 champions this year.
But all that seemed hollow after the sectional loss.
"That wasn't our goal," Shurette said. "To me, our goal was to win our last game."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.