The GPS softball team improved to 30-2 and breezed into the Spring Fling with two wins at Pope John Paul II on Tuesday, 14-0 in four innings and 17-1 with an eight-run seventh.
The second game went the distance, but the Bruisers led 9-0 after three innings and wound up with 20 hits after totaling 14 in game one, when they took immediate control with a seven-run first at-bat.
The best-of-three TSSAA Division II-AA quarterfinal series was supposed to be played in Chattanooga, but scheduling difficulties led the GPS team to make the trip to Hendersonville.
Shelby Waters pitched a four-inning two-hitter with seven strikeouts, and Hannah Sanders and Ariana Whatley each was 3-for-3 with two RBIs in the first game. Sanders doubled twice and scored three runs, and Whatley scored two. Elizabeth Warwick tripled, batted in three runs and scored two, while Hannah Petty was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs, Chapel Cunningham went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Kaitlyn Songer was 1-for-2 with two RBIs.
Sanders pitched a five-hitter and Haley Smith was 4-for-4 with two triples, a double, five RBIs and three runs scored in the rematch, when Whatley was 4-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs. Songer was 3-for-6 with four runs and an RBI, Warwick was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs, Cunningham also was 2-for-4 and Waters was 1-for-2 with two RBIs.
Sale Creek wins 2-A
Sale Creek used a five-run fourth inning to beat visiting Tellico Plains 5-1 in the Region 2-A championship game.
Trinity Liner hit a two-run home run and Allison Smith and Macie Stanfield each batted in a run in the fourth for the Lady Panthers (32-5), who got only five hits off Caitlyn Morgan. Morgan and Alayna Hensley each was 2-for-3 for Tellico, Hensley with an RBI.
Madison Stott (12-2) was the winning pitcher, minimizing six hits.