Halls defeated Stewarts Creek, 4-3, in a Class 4A state tournament game on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (Photo by Tanner Walker).
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — Halls softball coach Bryan Gordon received the sweetest birthday gift from his team on Wednesday, though it seemed like it might be a little sour at first.
The Lady Red Devils trailed Stewarts Creek 3-0 in a Class 4A state tournament contest at StarPlex in North Murfreesboro.
And they didn’t have a hit to show.
Yet they serenaded Gordon with the loudest of happy birthday songs following a 4-3 comeback victory.
Halls (36-7) plated four runs in the bottom of the sixth — a two-out, two-run double by Landry Bernard proving the game-winning hit — and Atiana Stamper came to snuff out a last-gasp rally by Stewarts Creek with a bevy of her patented screwballs.
The Lady Red Devils, now, must be beaten twice on Thursday to not reach Friday’s championship round.
“With our pitching staff,” Gordon said, “I think that gives us a little bit of an advantage.”
They’ll play at 10 a.m. Thursday for the chance to reach the title game, which will be played at MTSU on Friday.
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Halls entered play Wednesday having thrown four consecutive no-hitters. Stamper and Emery Bales are two of the better pitchers in East Tennessee and have had their way with hitters of late.
Stewarts Creek (29-15) brought that streak to an abrupt halt.
It got a hit in the second at-bat of the top of the first and then took a 2-0 lead just three batters later. Stewarts Creek likely thought the third run it scored in the top of the six would be the insurance run it needed to definitely secure the win, since Halls hadn’t been able to solve starter Jadyn Brawley.
“We were a little light, and we weren’t ourselves early,” Gordon said.
Makenzie Irwin figured Brawley out, though, to start the bottom of the sixth, singling to left field. Kyleigh Cooper added a single with one out. Then Emery Bales singled to center to score Irwin.
Brenna Hunley hit a sac fly to center to score another run.
After Brianna Smith walked, Bernard doubled on a liner to left to give Halls a 4-3 lead.
“I told (Bernard) before she went up there to bat that ‘you’re built for this,'” Gordon said. “And she believed me — for once.”
In the top of the seventh, Stewarts Creek got two runners on and then Halls intentionally walked Stewarts Creek’s Tenayja Thomas.
With two outs, Gordon brought in Stamper to face the lefty Brawley.
Stamper gave her a heavy dose of screwballs and fanned her on five pitches. Stamper said her screwball was ideal for getting out a left-handed hitter, that that’s why she came in in relief.
“It was (Stewarts Creek’s) fourth time through the lineup,” Gordon added. “Just gave them something a little different to look at.”