By Thomas Sellers Jr.
TRA Lady Rebel eighth grader Charlie Rose throws a pitch during a contest last week against Arlington.
In theory the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels would be the favorites in District 14-3A heading into April. Despite being in Division II-A private school, the Lady Rebels improved to 3-0 this season against foes from the public school league. TRA’s 6-5 win over the Arlington Lady Tigers at Lady Rebel Field March 28 extended the team’s win streak to eight. “Every time we play it’s a battle,” Lady Rebels Head Coach Johnie Sanfratello said. “It just happens to be when we’re here we jump out early. And then they come back because they’re such a good hitting team. They always make it interesting. “When we go to their place it’s always the opposite,” he continued. “We always split. They always win at their place and we always win at home here. We’re only playing them once this year. I told Coach Morgan, ‘I’m glad we’re not coming to you guys. That’s one less loss.’” For the first four innings it appeared the Lady Tigers might sneak out of Rosemark with a 1-0 victory. Then the Lady Rebels exploded for 6 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. TRA received RBI his from Shelby Clifton, Katie Diggs, Rachel Whitley, Emily Fisher and Lexi Williams. By the time the seventh inning rolled around, the score was 6-4 in favor of TRA with Arlington threatening. The Lady Tigers had the bases loaded with one out. Sanfratello pulled starter Whitley for eighth grader Charlie Rose. The veteran Skipper wanted to give his young pitcher a chance to gain experience in non-league contest in a big spot. Rose hit the first batter she faced to score a run making the score 6-5. The next Lady Tiger hitter had two strikes on her when Rose tossed a passed ball. “Shelby goes and get its it when they tried to score,” Sanfratello recalled. “She tagged the runner to get the second out. That was with two strikes on the hitter too. Then she gets the next girls to fly out to win the game.” The Lady Rebels improved to 9-3 overall with the Arlington win. TRA’s win over the Lady Tigers was the third over a District 14-3A team including victories over Bolton and Bartlett. TRA mixed those victories in with a solid showing at the Buffalo River Spring Fest over the March 24-25 weekend. “We probably hit the ball as well as we have in a couple of years,” Sanfratello said. “We had 7 or 8 home runs in the four games. We were playing on a huge field. If not, we would have probably hit a lot more. We show average pitching but we did absolutely what it takes to win those games. “We swung the bats like you’re supposed to swing the bats against pitching like that,” he added. “Defensively we didn’t have any mistakes and our pitching was just phenomenal. We scored 64 runs and gave up one. It was a great weekend for us.” Before the winning streak, the Lady Rebels would have spotty performances. One game the pitching was good like Whitley throwing a two-hitter against Chester County. But TRA had no offense losing the game 3-0. Sanfratello said moving forward he wants to see consistency in all phases of the game. “We had a tough first week,” he recalled. “We played really, really good competition in Jackson like against a Chester County team. They’re going to be one of the top Double A teams this year. They beat us twice. And we didn’t swing the bats at all in that tournament.
That has been the difference from our first week compared to the next two weeks,” Sanfratello concluded. “We are really swinging the bats well. I knew we were going to be able to swing the bats well. Defensively we have to be more focused. We made some plays today that could have cost us the game. If this team can stay focused, we have a chance to be really special.”
