Baylor girls claim their third consecutive state softball championship
Baylor takes two from GPS in state finals
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Maybe Macy McKnight is just too young to appreciate fully the trouble her team was in. Or maybe Baylor’s freshman pitcher is just that good.
Whatever the case, McKnight and her teammates certainly proved to be gritty enough to battle back for two wins over rival GPS, including a 6-1 finale Friday night that gave them their third consecutive Division II-AA state softball championship.
“I’m so proud of these kids,” Baylor coach Kelli Smith said. “The guts of this team, after losing yesterday, to come out and keep fighting until they got it done is just unbelievable. Our young kids left it all on the line and played with nothing to lose today.”
Baylor has won six of the last seven state titles, each of those coming over the Bruisers, with the lone interruption in that streak being GPS’s championship victory over the Lady Red Raiders in 2014.
After losing 7-1 to GPS on Thursday, Baylor whipped St. Benedict that evening, then outslugged the Bruisers 10-7 early Friday afternoon at the Murfreesboro Sports Complex, setting up a winner-take-all fifth meeting of the season.
The Chattanooga teams had split the four previous meetings (two in the regular season) and after Baylor took a 2-1 lead on an RBI single from freshman Makayla Packer, GPS loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth, threatening to finally snap its rival’s run of titles.
That’s when McKnight was called on in relief of eighth-grader Ace Sellers and promptly recorded a strikeout, a groundout back to her and another infield groundout.
“It was tough going in in that situation,” said McKnight, who allowed only a seventh-inning single. “I knew I had to go right at them. I think getting out of that inning changed everything for us. It was definitely the turning point in the game.
“That picked us up and we started swinging the bats and got a few more runs.”
Baylor manufactured an insurance run in its next at-bat, Emily Rye reaching on a walk and eventually scoring on a GPS error. The Lady Red Raiders (27-4) added two runs in the sixth — one on a sacrifice fly by Cheyenne Lindsey and one on Abby McNamara’s fielder’s choice.
Ashton Bazzell’s solo homer in the sixth was just icing.
“I challenged this team last night after we lost to GPS,” Smith said. “They responded by being flawless against St. Benedict and then took care of business twice today against a really tough team.
“It’s hard to put into words what winning three straight means to all of us, but it’s special. We’ve had some kids who have our program on a pretty good run right now, and we’re still young.” With no seniors and only three juniors, GPS (22-8) is even younger than Baylor, which had two seniors and four juniors this season. That could mean these two teams, which outscored the rest of the D-II competition by a combined 35-1 this week, will continue to face off for the foreseeable future.
“We left too many people on base,” Bruisers coach Susan Crownover said matter-of-factly. “And our (four) errors didn’t help, either. We had chances, and that’s what’s so frustrating. Maybe this will teach them what it takes to close it out and get it done next time.”