Boyd Buchanan senior softball player Mercedes Smith was flooded by autograph seekers and adoring little fans Wednesday evening after helping the Lady Buccaneers earn a trip to the Spring Fling for the first time since 2005.
Smith became a hero in the bottom of the seventh inning, when the starting shortstop and No. 8 batter in Boyd Buchanan’s lineup drove a walk-off RBI single to center field. Payton Rider, pinch-running for Peyton Pryor after she hit a leadoff double, scored the winner in the 5-4 victory against Goodpasture Christian in the decisive third game of a TSSAA Division II-A state quarterfinal series.
“At the beginning of the year, this season didn’t start off well for me,” said the left-handed hitting Smith, who produced her sixth multihit performance of the season to help coach Sarah Warren Bowles’ Lady Bucs improve to 32-5 overall. “I was sitting, and I just had zero confidence in myself. But this team and Coach Bowles really brought me up and encouraged me.
“I don’t even know what to say. I am shaking. I never thought in a thousand years I would drive in the game-winning run to send us to Murfreesboro. I am just so happy and excited that we get to go up there as a team.”
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