In the space of a single inning Saturday afternoon at Frost Stadium, a week of turmoil and travel with its share of adversity finally went the way of Chattanooga Christian School’s softball team.
The Lady Chargers entered the day needing to win just once against fellow finalist Baylor to repeat as Division II-AA state champions, and the teams resumed a game they had started Friday at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro before the arrival of more stormy weather during a TSSAA Spring Fling full of it in the mid-state region. Originally set to pick back up Friday evening at Riverdale High School, drainage problems in the outfield there led to the game being moved to the Chattanooga venue at Warner Park, and the teams got to come home for a night’s rest before taking the field for the final time this season.
The suspended game was picked up with the score 3-all and the Lady Chargers coming to bat in the top of the sixth inning, but their nerves showed in the field during the bottom half, with two errors leading to the go-ahead run by the Lady Red Raiders, who held on for a 4-3 victory to force a winner-take-all game.
Baylor, seeking a record-extending 18th softball state championship, then rode that momentum early in the second game by shutting down the bats of CCS — which entered the title round having outscored Baylor 26-6 while winning three previous meetings this year, including an 11-2 win in Tuesday’s first round at Murfreesboro’s McKnight Park — and took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Xahara Willis hit a home run to right-center field.
The Lady Chargers woke up at the plate in the bottom of the fifth, and six of their eight hits came in the final two innings and led to four runs. Baylor’s Ellison Dematteo led off the top of the seventh with a single, but CCS senior ace Kylie Black got a strikeout looking, a flyout to center field and a strikeout swinging to finish off the 4-1 win as the program added its second title just a year after breaking through for its first.