Baylor eighth-grader Ace Sellers throws no hitter against Central High School [photos]

Baylor's Ace Sellers lived up to her name with a no-hitter and 10 strikeouts in Thursday's 5-1 win over Central.
Baylor's Ace Sellers lived up to her name with a no-hitter and 10 strikeouts in Thursday's 5-1 win over Central.

Baylor eighth-grader Ace Sellers proved Thursday that there was more than one captivating pitcher in the Lady Red Raiders' high school softball game against Central.

Sellers outdueled Tennessee Tech-bound Brooke Parrott with a no-hitter in a 5-1 nonleague victory over the Lady Purple Pounders at Baylor.

Sellers was perfect through the first out in the fourth inning. Then there were three errors among the next four batters, allowing Central (19-8) to score its run.

"I think our play is so sporadic because of the weather," Baylor coach Kelli Smith said. "We'll have indoor practices; then we'll have outdoor practices. I think they can kind of lose focus. Sometimes we're not as sharp as we should be. We've got to make those plays that inning."

Parrott had one more strikeout than Sellers' 10, and against a much tougher lineup. Baylor (20-2) has won the last two Division II-AA state championships.

However, Sellers had no part in winning those titles, and her two doubles were among the seven hits Parrott allowed. The second drove in three in the third inning after the batter before, Ashton Bazzell, had brought in the first run by drawing a walk.

"Brooke is one of the best pitchers we'll face," Smith said. "She had 11 strikeouts, but we found a way to have a big inning."

Cheyenne Lindsey, who joined teammates Sellers and Emily Rye in going 2-for-3, tripled and scored the Lady Raiders' final run on Abby McNamara's sacrifice bunt in the fifth.

Rye also had a triple, off a misjudged fly, that got the big inning started. Both of Parrott's bases on balls were in the third, and both walkers scored.

"I felt like they were disciplined and looking for the ball down in the zone," Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said. "A few times they bit on the riseball."

Smith said pitching a gem is nothing new this year for Sellers, who also walked two, both in the sixth. The coach noted her pitching victory over East/Middle Region rival GPS and her six-inning shutout of District 5-AAA-leading Ooltewah in Soddy-Daisy's tournament.

"She's had some good games, especially being a rookie. Well, she's not even a rookie," said Smith, alluding to a moniker normally associated with a freshman in high school athletics.

Shurette has her Lady Pounders, who will be top-seeded in the District 6-AA tournament, entered in East Hamilton's Choo Choo Classic this weekend at the Summit of Softball complex as one more tuneup before the postseason.

"I hope this weekend we get in a groove with our bats," Shurette said. "We can hit. We need to go up there and not think so much and just get the bat to it. See it and hit it."

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.

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