MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - When asked Friday after the second championship game in the TSSAA Class A softball tournament how many innings she had left in her arm, Meigs County junior pitcher Ashley Rogers said, "I probably have zero."
As it stood, the University of Tennessee commitment didn't need any more this spring. But her right arm coupled with a state-tournament-record 12 home runs helped spark the Lady Tigers to a second consecutive state title.
This time they had to come from the losers bracket and beat Forrest 7-0 and 11-5 in the finals at Starplex No. 4.
Rogers (33-3) pitched all 48 of Meigs' innings in the tournament, striking out double digits every game except the last. She ended up with a tournament-record 80 strikeouts, eclipsing the mark of 72 set by Lipscomb's Megan Rhodes in 2004.
"We had to work a lot harder for it," said Rogers, comparing this to last year's championship. "We were the defending state champion. Everybody knew who we were. They knew everything about us. We had to fight our way through. We just had to think about the next game."
Meigs defeated Summertown 8-2 in the losers-bracket final in the morning to get to the championship games.
"We've got a great bunch of kids," Meigs coach Jeff Davis said. "They don't ever get too up or too down. Today they were a little emotional, more than they've ever been. They were loud and proud. It's usually a dead bunch. They come ready to play - you just usually can't tell it."
The Lady Tigers showed they were ready when they arrived Friday, scoring four runs in their first at-bat. Leadoff batter Kaylie Moore walked, next batter Aubrey Reed homered, and the offense was on its way.
After going 3-for-4 with three RBIs against Summertown, Reed had another big game in the first game of the finals. Again the junior and University of Toledo commitment was 3-for-4, this time with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored.
The Lady Tigers were homerless in that one but came back and got two home runs from Chattanooga State signee Madison Crabtree in the final game to go with one from Lindsey Ward. Meigs (41-3) hit 12 homers in the tournament, breaking the old record of eight set in 2013 by both East Hamilton and Lexington.
Seven Lady Tigers had two hits apiece in the final game, including freshmen Kassidy Kenny and Akira Reed at the bottom of the order. One of Akira Reed's was an RBI double.
"I thought our eight and nine hitters were huge throughout the tournament," Davis said. "They can fly. We're built for the three-run homer, but they allow us to play a little small ball, and they can hit it in the gap, too."
Others with two hits were Moore, Aubrey Reed, Crabtree, Ward and Alyson Crowder.
Another who chipped in with a hit in her last at-bat was junior first baseman Jade Meadows, who along with Ward had RBI singles in the first inning in the first final. Meadows watched from the dugout last year, unable to play because of a torn ACL she suffered late in basketball season.
"It feels a lot better," Meadows said of this year's title win. "I was part of the team last year, but now I actually feel like a part of the team. This time I did contribute. I feel like I actually won a ring."
The TSSAA is reclassifying after this school year and Meigs will be moving back to Class AA. Rogers said the Lady Tigers will be ready for the challenge.
Should they get to next year's state tournament, the real pressure will be on current sophomore second baseman Taylor Odom. She came up with the slogan "It's our day" that made it onto the backs of state-tournament T-shirts in 2016, and "It's the flow" was seen printed on the backs of numerous T-shirts this year.
"One day we were having a rough time," Odom said of a District 3 regular-season game against Rockwood. "We were talking and I said, 'It's always the flow. That's what helps you when you're winning games.' Something happened and we came back and won the game. That's become my job now."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.