MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Sale Creek needed only five innings to dispose of Houston County, 12-2, in its TSSAA Class A state-tournament opener Tuesday at McKnight No. 3.
Summertown defeated Whitwell 6-2 at Starplex No. 4 in the other Class A game involving a Chattanooga-area team.
Sale Creek (35-5) will play Unaka today at Starplex No. 4 at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Whitwell (21-16) will play South Fulton on the same field at 11 a.m. EDT.
» Sale Creek 12, Houston County 2: The Lady Panthers scored twice in the first inning and four times in the second and were on their way.
"We hit every inning," Sale Creek assistant coach Kendra Mooneyham said. "Every inning we had runners in scoring position. We made a couple of defensive errors we need to get cleaned up, but it wasn't anything bad. We hit the ball really well."
Macie Stanfield was the winning pitcher, and she also went 3-f0r-3, drove in two runs and scored one. Shelby Sullivan doubled twice and totaled six RBIs, including driving in the final two that halted the game by mercy rule.
Trinity Liner was 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Lady Panthers, and Hannah Hall and Leah Campbell scored three runs apiece.
» Summertown 6, Whitwell 2: The Lady Tigers committed three of their four errors in the first two innings, and they trailed 5-0 going to the third.
"It was routine plays we messed up on," Whitwell coach Rebecca Castle said.
Whitwell got its runs in the bottom of the fourth, which began with consecutive walks to Anna Yell and Caitlyn Rollins. Carley Terry's one-out single drove in the first run, and Rollins scored on a throwaway when Terry stole second base. Unfortunately for the Lady Tigers, Terry was injured on the play and had to come out.
"Defensively we settled down," Castle said of her team's play after the second inning. "We only had one error after that. We just couldn't punch in any runs. We got some baserunners but couldn't make it count."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.