It was a good thing for Girls Preparatory School that Haley Smith remembered to bring her bat to Friday's Division II-AA East/Middle Region softball game. Hannah Sanders and Hannah Kincer will echo that sentiment.
Using Smith's bat, those three Bruisers combined for five home runs and powered the host Bruisers to an 8-3 victory over Pope John Paul II.
GPS (19-10) has had multiple attempts to play region games in the Nashville area rained out. But the Bruisers' 2-0 region record looks big with the wins over Baylor and the Lady Knights (18-13-1, 7-1).
"We're glad to get another region win," said GPS coach Susan Crownover, whose teams lost to JPII each of the past two regular seasons. "It was good to get a win over these folks in the regular season.
"This group is still growing and evolving."
Smith was on record as saying she was mentally preparing for the game against the Lady Knights since the Bruisers beat Baylor on April 12, and she more than backed up her words.
The No. 3 batter got a pitch up in the strike zone in the bottom of the first inning and drove it out of the park to pull the Bruisers even at 1-1. The next pitch Smith saw was in the third, and she went down and got that one to hit it out in about the same area.
"I felt very relaxed in the batter's box," said Smith, who flied out close to the right-field fence in her other at-bat. "I went up there looking for my strike. It just so happened I hit it well enough to get it out. I like lower pitches more than high ones. The second time up I felt like that first pitch was going to be a strike."
Smith's second homer came with one out after Kaitlyn Songer had doubled in Elizabeth Warwick, who started the inning with a single. Kincer made it back-to-back home runs. Then one out later, Sanders hit her first of the day.
"Credit to them," JPII coach Jody Brothers said. "Home runs beat us. The difference was we left nine runners on base. They left one."
Sanders' second homer came after Sydney White singled leading off the Bruisers' half of the sixth.
"We all hit our home runs with that bat, so give credit to the bat," Smith said. "I know we had to have a little to do with it, too."
The Lady Knights got seven hits off winning pitcher Kincer (9-2). But the only inning they got more than one was the sixth, when they scored two runs.
Kincer gave up a one-out triple to Caitlyn Brinkley in the fifth but followed that with consecutive strikeouts to strand her. The sophomore right-hander struck out eight, and all the runs she allowed were unearned.
She did, however, walk four. After the fourth, Crownover paid her a visit in the pitching circle during the sixth innning.
"She didn't have her best stuff today," Crownover said. "Something was not quite right. I went out there and talked to her, but I'm not sure she told me the truth. She wanted to pitch. I had to get her focused a little bit. Mechanically, she was a little off. But she battled through it. They've got some kids who can swing it."
JPII plays this morning at 11 at Baylor (30-4, 4-1), which has won 19 games in succession since losing to GPS.
"This is a good team," Brothers said of GPS. "You come down here and you expect to get a clinic on how to hit the ball, how to pitch and how to play defense. Chattanooga is known for its softball. Not just Baylor and GPS. You hold a tournament down here in Chattanooga and a lot of people will want to attend it."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653.