The ups and downs of trying to mold a high school softball team for postseason play were epitomized in Monday's regular-season game when Walker Valley beat Central 5-2 at Central.
The host Lady Purple Pounders had tied for third place in the Gold bracket in the Lady Trojan Invitational this past weekend. Their 2-0 loss to Soddy-Daisy was the closest any team played the host team during elimination play.
Earlier in the year the Lady Mustangs won the Brentwood Invitational, but that was followed by a 10-0 home loss to Soddy-Daisy. They played in Riverdale's tournament over the weekend and went 3-4.
"They knew we needed a win," said Walker Valley coach Chris Doan, whose team is now 12-10-1. "We let too many get away this weekend. We just didn't always play seven solid innings."
Central coach LeeAnee Shurette said her team had been building on the foundation set early in the season but called Monday's loss "a good lesson." It didn't matter that Central (13-7) outhit the Lady Mustangs 9-4.
Courtney Gobble had two of Walker Valley's hits and drove in a run with each, but no Lady Mustang who reached on a hit scored. Losing pitcher Shelby Willard walked seven and three came around to score -- Laurel Allen twice. So did the two who reached on Central's errors.
"She was throwing her riseball early in the game," Doan said of Willard. "We started moving back in the box as the game went on. Then she started trying to throw her dropball. We just had to make some adjustments. She still pitched a good game. She kept our batters off balance all day."
Two of the walks came with the bases loaded with Sara Spain and Morgan Elrod getting RBIs.
"She was spot-on this weekend," Shurette said of Willard. "It just wasn't there today."
Jade Stoker, who went 2-for-4, scored for the Lady Pounders on the back end of a double steal in the first inning. They totaled three hits and a walk in the fourth, but only Dora Harper's single produced a run.
"We made a few baserunning mistakes that kind of took us out of some situations," Shurette said. "We had the bases loaded twice and our baserunning got us out of it. Normally we run the bases like champs."
Winning pitcher Sidney Hooper had three strikeouts and allowed three walks.
Sammie Braley went 2-for-3 with a double for Central.