Lionettes not content with hard-earned No. 1 seed
On the brink of the District 6-AA high school softball tournament, Red Bank’s Lionettes have a different view on the competition this season. It’s from the top.
The Lionettes enter this year’s postseason as the district regular-season champions, interrupting Central’s string of No. 1 tournament seeds throughout the careers of the current six seniors on Red Bank’s team. The tournament is being held at Signal Mountain and begins today at 4:30 p.m.
Five other district tournaments involving area teams also begin today at various locations. The District 7-AA tournament began Thursday with Grundy County defeating Bledsoe County 8-4 in a play-in game.
All seven tournaments have games scheduled Saturday, although the National Weather Service is forecasting a 60 percent chance of afternoon showers in the area that could cause some reshuffling of schedules. There are other factors that could cause schedule changes, like in District 5-AAA where Bradley Central has its prom on Saturday night and East Hamilton has class night on Monday.
The Lionettes’ first playoff game is scheduled Saturday morning at 10 against Friday’s winner between Tyner and Signal Mountain. Red Bank (25-7) ended up 7-0 in its league games during the regular season but didn’t have the top seeding secured until beating East Ridge in a rainout makeup game two days ago.
Because a loss to East Ridge would’ve created a three-way tie for first place, the Lionettes didn’t assume just because they had upended nemesis Central as far back as April 12 that they were going to be district regular-season champs — until it was final.
“We’ve always had good competition with East Ridge,” said Destiny Painter, the team’s center fielder this year and a four-year starter.
Experience has played a key role for the Lionettes to this point. Seniors Layla Babb, Kelsey Peden, Sami Shrader and Hannah Wood also are mainstays in the lineup, and Casey Stewart would be if she was healthy.
Coach Mandi Munn said the first team goal was to earn the tournament’s No. 1 seeding. Now that the players have accomplished that, they haven’t shied away from it but rather “taken ownership of it,” the coach said.
“We’re the number one team that everybody would like to beat,” said second baseman Peden, another four-year starter. “We’d like to keep that going until we get where we want to go.”
District finalists will move on to region play. Region finalists advance to sectionals, where the winners earn berths in the state tournament.
These seniors got as far as a sectional game when they were sophomores but lost at DeKalb County.
“I think we have a better mindset now,” Painter said. “We have six seniors. We have a better attitude.”
Munn said hitting has been a team strength this season and defense has been at times. If the Lionettes get both at the same time, she sees this as a potential state-tournament team.
“We just really want it before we graduate,” Painter said.
Lionettes get award
On Monday, Red Bank was presented the second Terry Cordell memorial award for sportsmanship in softball as voted on by the local umpires. Last year Arts & Sciences received the first award, which is named for the longtime area softball and baseball umpire assigner.
“It’s a huge honor, just because I preach to the girls all the time to play with character and sportsmanship,” Munn said. “I try to stay on top of them constantly. I understand people get frustrated, so for them to get recognized for good sportsmanship means a lot. Because the award is named for Terry Cordell, who I had tons of respect for, that makes it even more special.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.