The tension surrounding the District 6-AA softball winners-bracket final Monday at Hixson suddenly lifted as Central’s bottled-up offense finally exploded.
A tight pitchers’ duel with East Ridge was the story for nearly six full innings before the Lady Purple Pounders scored seven runs – all with two outs – in the bottom of the sixth to secure an 8-0 win.
“I was not really happy with the bats until the last inning,” Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said. “We’ve worked hard on being disciplined in the zone, and we didn’t do that very well, and their pitcher did a great job keeping us off kilter. We tried to get some things going with some bunts. The ball just didn’t bounce our way there, but it came together in the sixth.”
Until then, Brooke Parrott had carried the load for the Lady Pounders, providing the only run with an RBI groundout and dominating in the pitching circle. She racked up 18 strikeouts in seven innings while allowing two hits and a walk.
Parrott struck out the side five times and had separate streaks of six and seven consecutive punch-outs.