By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The mission was simple for the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels.
After winning the first Division II-A Sectional Series game 12-7 over the Middle Tennessee Christian School Lady Cougars, TRA needed to win more game. A victory meant another trip to Murfreesboro for the Division II-A State Softball Tournament this week.
Triumph over MTCS, the Lady Rebels would return back to State for the first time since 2018. After falling behind 2-0, the Lady Rebels outscored the Lady Cougars 18-2 to win the right to head back to State.
“They (the bats) have been all year,” TRA Head Coach Johnie Sanfratello said. “We’re at home but we were the visitors. They put a two spot. We were like ‘I guess it’s time to go to work.’ When you put up 11 in one inning, you can do a lot of good things.”
In the top of the third inning, TRA placed 11 runs on the scoreboard to seize control of the game. After a sacrifice fly by Myah Wright made the tally 5-2, the Lady Rebels exploded for six more runs in the frame highlighted by an RBI double from Addie Thorpe.
The score became 7-2 when Brooklyn Rose stroked a double. Then a pair of runners crossed the plate courtesy of a Kayla Clement laser triple. Then Ryleigh Bowers plated a pair of Lady Rebels to make the score 11-2.
In the sixth inning, TRA put the game away starting with a Bowers RBI double. Then TRA pitcher Charli Rice helped her cause with a two-run double to make the score 14-2.
Brooke Harrison made the score 16-2 with a single. The final run of the game was driven in by Bowers with a base hit.
Rice took care of her business in the circle controlling the Lady Cougar lineup.
“She’s was lights out,” Sanfratello said. “She was huge for us tonight.”
Rice and her fellow seniors Brooklyn Rose and Ali Naumann are heading back to Murfreesboro after a tough Sub-State defeat in 2019 and a pandemic cancellation in 2020.
“It’s huge because we had a really good team last year,” Sanfratello noted. “We had this team minus those young eighth and ninth graders.
“We knew we had the same nucleus that could come back and make a run,” he concluded. “We had the talent but they have gone over my expectations. I knew we had a good team but I did not know we could come out swing the bats the way we have.”
