MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - University of Tennessee softball coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly made an appearance at Starplex's field No. 4 Wednesday to take a look at prize recruit Ashley Rogers, a sophomore at Meigs County.
As soon as the Weeklys took a seat behind the backstop in the third inning of the Class A state tournament's winners-bracket semifinal, Rogers strode to the plate and promptly homered over the right-field fence.
And her prowess is supposed to be pitching.
Well, that was on display, too, against Summertown in the form of a 16-strikeout performance. Oh, and she homered again in the fifth as the Lady Tigers rolled to an 11-3 victory.
Meigs County (38-3) is in the winners-bracket final, where it will play Marion County (36-7) on the same Starplex field at 6:30 EDT tonight. Summertown (28-13) dropped into the losers bracket.
Rogers had a perfect game through four innings and got the first out of the fifth on her 10th strikeout. Madison Konig broke up the no-hitter with a single before Anisten Burleson spoiled the shutout with a home run to make it 8-2. The Lady Eagles tacked on an unearned run with two outs in the seventh.
Rogers finished with a five-hitter and did not allow a walk. She was 3-for-4 with her homers of the solo and three-run variety.
"She's about as laid back of a kid as you'll ever find," said Meigs coach Jeff Davis, unaware whether Rogers knew the Weeklys were gauging her performance. "She doesn't talk a whole lot. She just works hard and plays hard."
And Rogers wasn't the only Meigs player with two homers. Olivia Johnson, batting seventh in the lineup, hit one in the second with one on and added a three-run blast in the seventh.
"I was just doing my job," said Johnson, whose two-run single Tuesday was the difference in the Lady Tigers beating Silverdale Baptist Academy 3-1 in their tournament opener. "There's really not a lot of pressure batting there. I had a clear head, I was seeing the pitches well and doing what I was supposed to do."
Kaylie Moore went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Madison Crabtree and Lindsey Ward each went 2-for-4 with a run scored for Meigs, which had 14 hits.
"I don't think we had the intensity we had the first game (against SBA), but that was to be expected," Davis said. "You get four or five runs ahead with Ashley pitching and you feel like you've got enough to win. We were a little impatient, but I can't complain. We depend on doubles and home runs, and we got a few of those today.
"We average about seven runs a game, maybe. We can hit it."