Gibbs beats Lady Owls on walk-off slam
“Nobody is holding their head down. If we win that first one tomorrow, we’ll play another one. If we get to Friday, we’ll let it all hang out.”
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Had Wednesday’s TSSAA Class AAA state softball winners-bracket semifinal at McKnight No. 1 between Ooltewah and Gibbs been scheduled for five innings, Ooltewah’s Lady Owls would’ve been in great shape.
But a two-run sixth enabled the Lady Eagles to tie it, and the next inning Macy Hughes hit a walk-off grand slam and lifted Gibbs past Ooltewah 7-3 and into today’s winners-bracket final.
The Lady Owls (33-9) play today at 12:30 p.m. EDT. If they win, they will play again at 5.
“Nobody is holding their head down,” Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. “If we win that first one tomorrow, we’ll play another one. If we get to Friday, we’ll let it all hang out.”
Hughes also had a solo home run, which came in the first inning.
The Lady Owls went ahead in the third on Mabry Carpenter’s three-run homer. The score
stayed that way through five innings.
Losing pitcher Kayla Boseman gave up seven hits and three walks and had nine strikeouts. She also went 3-for-4 with a double off the top of the fence.
Tyler Sullivan went 2-for-4
for Ooltewah, which ended up leaving eight on base. The Lady Eagles stranded three.
“We knew three runs wasn’t going to be enough,” Massey said. “Had Kayla’s gone out, it would’ve made it 4-1 at the time and we’d have felt a lot better. But in the grand scheme of things it wouldn’t have mattered, you lose 7-4 or 7-3. We can get them on; getting them in, we have trouble with sometimes.
“At some point in time our offense has got to score six, seven, eight runs. I think we’re capable of it. It takes a lot of two-out hits, but you win games like that.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.