One of Chattanooga’s top pitchers from last high school softball season made her season debut Tuesday at Silverdale Baptist in the District 5-A tournament, but the opposing pitcher stole the show.
Arts & Sciences’ Liana Rodrigues limited Silverdale to two late singles, which proved to be too late singles in the Lady Patriots’ 3-0 victory.
CSAS (14-11) will play at regular-season champion Grace Academy today in the winners-bracket final at 4:30 p.m. Boyd-Buchanan will play at 4:30 at Silverdale (16-7), which beat Copper Basin after its loss.
The Lady Seahawks’ Katie Henderson had to sit out a year after transferring from Boyd-Buchanan, where she was a second-team all-city selection as a freshman pitcher. Her last game with the Lady Bucs was May 7, 2009.
Rodrigues also gained some notoriety last season when she was an eighth-grader. Tuesday she was celebrated for being perfect through five innings and without a ball leaving the infield.
She wound up with seven strikeouts and did not allow a walk. The only Lady Patriots error proved to be a nonfactor in the final inning.
Conversely, the Lady Seahawks made six errors behind starter Kelsey Dishroon and Henderson, who came to the pitcher’s circle at the start of the fifth inning and did not allow a hit and had nine strikeouts. She did give up three walks, one of which scored on a throwing error.
The only hit Dishroon gave up was Chariah Gordon’s single in the fourth, when CSAS scored one earned run and one unearned one. Coach Chip Liner said both of his pitchers deserved a better fate.
“Offensively they threatened a lot more than we did,” Liner said. “The way Rodrigues was pitching, once they got two runs we knew it was going to be hard. Once they got three runs, then we knew it was going to be really tough. She was pretty dominant.”