The Bucs didn’t stop here.
Now they’re going to an NCAA regional for the first time in East Tennessee State University softball history.
With tournament most outstanding player Lindsey Fadnek taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and regular-season player of the year Danielle Knoetze driving in four runs, ETSU won the Southern Conference tournament Saturday with a 6-0 defeat of Samford at Jim Frost Stadium.
Reaching base for the 18th game in a row, senior leadoff batter Mykeah Johnson from Northwest Whitfield High School went 3-for-4, and she and redshirt junior Kelsey Chernak from Ooltewah began each of the Buccaneers’ scoring innings with an infield hit.
Johnson singled to start the bottom of the first inning, and although she was forced out at second by Nikki Grupp, Grupp moved to second on a two-out walk for Tiffany Laughren and scored on Taylor Carter’s single to left field.
“I figured it was going to be one run back and forth all day. Getting that run in the beginning was huge,” said ETSU coach Brad Irwin, standing on the home field of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he earned two degrees and served two stints as an assistant coach.
The one-run edge lasted only until the top of his batting order came up again in the third inning. Johnson got another hit and Grupp singled her to second before Knoetze blasted a long home run to left field, giving Fadnek a 4-0 cushion.
The senior allowed five walks but no hits until Madison Couch led off the sixth with a sharp single past the third baseman. Irwin quickly brought in junior Madison Ogle, who joined Fadnek on the all-tournament team along with second baseman Grupp, and Ogle got the next three batters and overcame a hit batter and a Shelby Maze single in the seventh in preserving the shutout.
“I consider them both my number-one pitcher. I just wanted to give (Samford) something different,” Irwin explained. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out which one to go with, but Madi had a great game yesterday and had pitched a lot of innings in this tournament, so we went with Lindsey and she was great for us again.”
Fadnek pitched 11 innings in the Bucs’ 4-0 run through the tournament and was 2-0 with a save. She struck out 10 batters and allowed only one extra-base hit, and it was a double.
Chernak started ETSU’s sixth at-bat by beating out a grounder to the right side, and Kylie Toler walked and Malloree Schurr got another infield single, loading the bases. Johnson then lined hard to shortstop for a double play, but Grupp and Knoetze followed with RBI singles for the final margin.
Grupp, Knoetz and Carter each was 2-for-4 for ETSU (29-24). Samford wound up 25-36.
“It feels really amazing,” Chernak said of the championship, three years after her freshman class won only three league games in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
She graduated last Monday but missed the 2016 season because of an injury, and she plans to be back as a player next year while working on a master’s degree in digital marketing. Among the other grads were Johnson and Marion County’s Brooke Baxter, who received the SoCon Pinnacle Award for the highest cumulative grade point average – in her case, 4.0 – on the winning team.
“We knew coming in that we were coming to a program that wasn’t winning a lot, but we wanted to make a difference,” Chernak said. “Just to play for a ring was unbelievable, but now we can go into next season with a winning mentality – knowing we can do it – and I think in the future ETSU softball is something people can look out for.”
Johnson doesn’t know what she’s going to do with her future, but she’s still focused on softball. The Bucs will find out their NCAA regional details in an ESPN2 show tonight at 10.
“Wherever God takes me,” the speedster said.
“I’m excited for my team. We’ve come a long way,” added Johnson, who’s batting .308 with a .448 on-base percentage for the season. “It’s been a long journey, but my senior class kept pushing through. I think we didn’t have any pressure on us, but we kept playing every game like it was our last.
“We’re just glad to be in this moment.”
Samford’s all-tournament players were Couch, Maze, Kelsey Royalty and pitcher Grey Adams. Also listed were Mercer’s Quirisa Mauga, Western Carolina’s Madison Armstrong and UTC junior Ashley Conner, who led all players with a .556 batting average and a 1.222 slugging percentage. She was 5-for-9 with two homers in the Mocs’ three games.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.