Perhaps it was his words of encouragement. Perhaps it was his mere prescence. Or maybe Sale Creek's Lady Panthers just deserve all the credit themselves.
With head coach Clifford Kirk in attendance for the first time since breaking his hip nearly two months ago, Sale Creek defeated Tellico Plains 7-3 in the winners-bracket final in the District 4-A high school softball tournament Monday at Lookout Valley.
The tournament is scheduled to continue today with Lookout Valley (17-14) playing Tellico Plains in the losers-bracket final at 6 p.m. The winner will earn a berth in next week's Region 2 tournament.
Sale Creek (29-5) already has secured a region berth and awaits the winner in Wednesday's final. The championship is scheduled for 5, with a second game set at 7, if necessary.
Kirk's injury occurred at the end of the first week of the season. He said he's kept up with the team through his mobile device, then added, "It's not the same as being here."
From his wheelchair positioned beside the Lady Panthers' dugout, Kirk watched as right-hander Macie Stanfield stymied the tournament's No. 1-seeded Lady Bears. The teams had split their district games, each winning on the road, and won the rest on the way to being regular-season co-champions. But Tellico Plains came out ahead in run differential by one, bumping Sale Creek to the No. 2 seeding.
The Lady Panthers scored twice in the top of the first inning and led throughout, although a two-run sixth by the Lady Bears pulled them within 4-3. Two of Stanfield's five walks were in that inning that also included an error that rendered the runs unearned. She ended up pitching a four-hitter with nine strikeouts.
"I thought they did well," Kirk said. "They had the one inning there where they slacked off a little bit, but that happens a lot, even with good teams. I thought that was one of Macie's better ballgames. Some of the rest of the girls made some good plays. That was good. We don't always do that."
Sale Creek put a damper on Tellico Plains' hopes with a three-run seventh that started with Stanfield's triple to right-center. Assistant coach Eric Sullivan's daughter, Shelby, who had doubled in the first-inning runs, then came to bat.
"I told her, 'Give me something deep, something we can tag up on,'" said Coach Sullivan, who was in the third-base box at the time.
Sullivan not only hit a fly, it landed over the fence down the right-field line. Trinity Liner and Madison Stott, who was 2-for-4, followed with back-to-back doubles.
Hannah Hall sparked the Lady Panthers at the top of the order, going 3-for-3 with a double and a walk. She also stole a base and scored twice.
» Lookout Valley 13, Arts & Sciences 4: In a losers-bracket game Monday, winning pitcher Katie Dinger threw six innings with both runs she allowed being unearned. She also went 2-for-3, both doubles, stole four bases and scored four runs.
Ansley McBryar went 4-for-5 with a double, an RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases. Savannah Rains was 3-for-5 with a double, two RBIs, three runs scored and she also stole two bases.
"We hit it well at times," Lookout Valley coach David Dinger said. "Defensively we made some mistakes, but they were not magnified because we hit it."
Alaina Thomas was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored for CSAS. Maliyah Mayes and Joya Green were each 2-for-4 with Mayes driving in two runs.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.