Meigs County pitcher Ashley Rogers came into the Jim Frost Ooltewah Invitational high school softball tournament with an unblemished earned run average. And now that the tournament is over, that still hasn't changed.
Rogers threw a six-inning two-hitter in the Gold championship game Saturday with no walks and 16 strikeouts, and the Lady Tigers capped a two-day unbeaten run at The Summit of Softball Complex with a 5-0 victory over Scottsboro, Ala.
"Our pitching obviously was good, and we hit the ball really good," Meigs County coach Jeff Davis said of his team's weekend. "Chattanooga Central shut us down, but they've shut everybody down. We scratched out enough runs to win that one. We won a little bit in every way. But we hit the ball, top to bottom, and the people off the bench did, too."
Jade Meadows had a two-run home run in a three-run third inning in the final. One run scored on a throwing error in the fourth, and Aubrey Reed's groundout drove in the final run.
Davis guided Meigs (13-1) to the Class A state championship last season, but the 14-year coaching veteran said he'd never been part of a regular-season tournament champion until this weekend.
"This ought to give us a little boost for the rest of the season," he said. "I don't think we're going to surprise anybody from now on out."
Sale Creek second
Sale Creek's day started at 8 a.m. and didn't end until around 9 p.m. But it ended with the Lady Panthers' only loss in six games on the day.
Warren County beat them 8-2 in six innings in the Silver final.
It helped Sale Creek (11-4) that it was able to distribute its pitching load among Leah Campbell, Jade Lawson and Madison Stott.
"They didn't quit," Sale Creek coach Clifford Kirk said of his team's long day. "We came from behind a couple of games. We scored a lot of runs. I thought everybody did an adequate job. We just ran out of gas here."
The Lady Panthers' runs in the final came in the bottom of the first inning. It started with infield singles by Hannah Hall and Mikah McCombs with a throwing error tacked on each one. Stott picked up an RBI with a two-out single to right-center.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.