Central shortstop Alexis Grampp watches as her 3-run homer flies over the centerfield fense on Thursday, April 9, 2015 at Central. Grampp put Central ahead 3-0 early in the game. Central’s Alexis Grampp came through with a big blast in the bottom of the first inning of Thursday’s District 6-AA high school softball game at Central. And after the way Lady Purple Pounders pitcher Brooke Parrott threw in the top of the inning, the home run looked even bigger.
With Grampp’s three-run shot providing the bulk of the offense, Parrott pitched a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts and Central defeated the Lionettes 4-0.
Central (11-6, 4-0) can wrap up the district regular-season championship Tuesday by defeating visiting Hixson. Red Bank (5-6) fell to 2-1 in the league standings.
“I always think Red Bank is a scrappy team,” Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said. “They’re the ones in our district that we’ve kind of got to bring our ‘A’ game against.”
Parrott looked to be on her ‘A’ game right away, striking out the first three she faced.
Then the Lady Pounders came in and got singles from Sam Scott and Kaili Crawley sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt before Grampp got a pitch up in the strike zone and almost hit the center-field scoreboard with it.
“The flag was flying straight in,” Shurette said of the American flag atop the flagpole next to the scoreboard. “Everything that went up today got caught in the wind. I’m glad she had something on it and got it out of here.”
The score was still 3-0 when Red Bank’s Allison Walker led off the fourth with a single. The Lionettes managed to get runners on the corners with one out, but Parrott responded with two of her strikeouts.
“I thought she threw smart,” Shurette said. “She was being smart with her pitches, like when she had them 0-2. She was also being smart if it was 3-2. If she thought they were looking high, she’d come in with one at the knee.”
Bri Whitlock and Hanna Land had consecutive singles starting Red Bank’s seventh. But a lineout double play killed the late rally.
“I’m pretty pleased with the way we played defensively. We’ve just got to do a better job of just trying to put the ball in play against her,” Red Bank coach Mandi Munn said of Parrott, who walked one and hit one. “Early on we just weren’t making good contact. Then at the end we had an opportunity but just hit it right at them.”
Amanda Roy came in as a pinch-runner after Tatum Morgan started the fourth for Central with a single. She scored the other run on a throwing error on Emma Beach’s sacrifice bunt.
Land pitched the last four innings for the Lionettes and gave up two hits, no walks and the unearned run. Scott, at 2-for-3, was the game’s only player with more than one hit.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.