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The Fillies Meagan Rush battled Maddie Carrington for supremacy on the mound. Although Carrington found more strikeouts for the day, Rush had support down the stretch from her teammates in both the fourth and sixth innings when the Lady Devils had two base runners left on base.

In the first inning, Brooke Pritchard was the only Fillie to reach base and never advanced past first. The Red Devils got a pair of singles, but the Fillies cured that problem with a double play as Courtney Henson caught a fly at third for the second out and then threw the ball to Jessica Carlton at first for the double play, catching the base runner off base.

In the second inning, the Fillies gained a pair of base runners hitting the ball into right field for a single and advancing to second on a hit to center by Candace Sellers. The Red Devils had more success. The Lady Devils scored a single run in the second inning to take a brief lead in the contest. The highlight of the inning for the Fillies however was the Lady Devils' attempt to gain two runs on a hit to right field. Daron Webb threw the ball to second baseman Holly Newman and she relayed the ball on to catcher Amanda Clark at the plate for the out on the tag.

The third inning found both teams with three up and three down on good defensive play by both teams. Ashlee Porter flew out to the third baseman, Courtney Henson flew out to center field and Pritchard flew out to Carrington on the mound. The Fillies' Courtney Henson threw out the first batter at first while the second flew out to Carlton at first and the third flew out to Porter in center.

Trailing 1-0, the Fillies went to bat in the top of the fourth inning with Carlton leading off the inning with a single to center field. Amanda Clark reached base on an error and Carlton scored on a steal to home to tie the game. Holly Newman also reached base on an error and both she and Clark scored to put the Fillies up 3-1. In the bottom of the inning, the Lady Devils' leadoff batter reached base on an error and the second reached base on a single. After the third batter hit the ball to Rush on the mound, the fourth reached base on an error and the Lady Devils had the bases loaded. On a fielder's choice, the leadoff batter scored to narrow the lead to 3-2, but the Fillies picked up their second out on the play and then the final batter for the inning hit the ball to Rush and was thrown out at first.

In the fifth inning, the Fillies and Lady Devils again had three up and down as did the Fillies in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, the Fillies had some problems which were caused by a couple of errors which led to two base runners at second and third and no outs. Batter number three flew out to Henson at third which held the leadoff runner at third. The fourth struck out and although Clark dropped the ball, she quickly picked it up and tagged the batter before she could run to first and leave the plate open for the runner from third. Rush scored her second strikeout with batter number five, who went down swinging on a 1-2 pitch. The Fillies still had a 3-2 lead going into the final inning.

Although Huntingdon had three up and down, they countered by getting South Fulton's first three batters out. The first flew out to Newman at second, the second to Porter in center field and the third grounded to Newman who threw the ball quickly to Carlton at first for the final out.

The Fillies had only two seniors on the team and those two, Crystal Davidson and Holly Newman graduated Monday night. Although the Fillies were scheduled to leave on Monday afternoon for Memphis, Coach Mike Henson believed his seniors would follow them on Tuesday morning and reach the field in time for the game. The Fillies are now 14-10 and Coach Henson told his players that reaching the state tournament for the first time since 1999 was something of a miracle for the young squad. Henson was also the coach of the Fillies basketball team which not only advanced to their first state tournament this year, but reached the semi-final round. The Red Devils will stay home this year after advancing the past four years.

Without three of its seniors and a freshman starter, McKenzie managed to field a competitive team and hung right with the Tigerettes before bowing 4-0.

The loss ends the season for McKenzie at 20-18.

Seniors Becky Toombs, Leah Wallace and Kristen Wiggins stayed behind for graduation ceremonies that took place Friday night and catcher Courtney Creasy stayed to see her senior sister graduate.

That left McKenzie with seven players, not enough to make the road trip to Marshall County. But two players were on the roster and listed as eligible by the TSSAA before the season began, but left the team for personal reasons. They returned and did admirably for the Lady Rebels. They were Crystal Mann and Amanda Rogers. They joined the team and fit right in.

McKenzie put the bat on the ball against Marshall County, but never generated enough offense to score. Meanwhile, Marshall County scored a run in the fourth, a run in the fifth and two in the sixth to capture the victory and advance to state.

MHS coach Randy Thomas was proud of the contribution of the team and the two who made the sacrifice to join the squad.

"I was proud of Amanda and Crystal to be willing to give up their own time to support us, which they were in no way obligated to do," Thomas said. "They made a contribution and they are the type who can complement the program real well."

While the seniors would have made the team stronger, the level of play didn't suffer because of the newcomers. The offense just struggled. MHS was limited to three hits, but managed to have baserunners for much of the day.

"When you don't have your two, four and five hitters there, it takes the heart out of your order," said the coach. "It limits what you can do. Give them credit, Marshall County played well and didn't make any mistakes. We hit the ball and they made the plays."

In the first inning, freshman Jalisha Brown stroked a single with two outs, but was retired on a fielder's choice.

In the second inning, Kayla Bomar reached on an error and Brook Ridley walked, but both were stranded.

Brittany Russell singled with two out in the fourth, but was left there. In the Marshall County fourth two hits pushed across a run and the Tigerettes led 1-0. That's all they needed.

In the fifth, two more hits added up to a 2-0 lead. McKenzie's Brooke Cole had a single in the sixth but couldn't score.

Marshall County managed two singles and a double for the final 4-0 margin. Russell was hit by a pitch to start the seventh and took second on a fielder's choice, but that's where she stayed when the game ended.

Sophomore hurler Brooke Carpenter had a good day and was very economical. Just a few bad breaks in the late innings proved costly. She fanned three, issued nine hits and didn't walk a single batter.

Thomas said he was pleased with the team's effort all season long.

"We had an outstanding season. Eleven teams we played were in regional competition and eight made it to substate, almost every school we played had an enrollment almost twice as large as ours and that's a credit to the kids," Thomas said.

Three seniors played their last game, thanks to Marshall County, last Wednesday in the regional finals at Camden. Thomas had nothing but praise for his trio.

"They have been an integral part of the program," Thomas said. "Kristin was a four-year starter and Becky and Leah were three-year starters. They made big, big contributions and they were put in a situation where they had to make a choice. I commend them for what they did. They showed that education is what it's all about."

The future looks bright for the Lady Rebs. They return a youth movement to the team and will have some promising youngsters coming into high school next season.

"We hope we can make a return trip to substate next year," said Thomas. "We hope that we possibly can go further. This team faced a lot of adversity this year with injuries and everything else and I'm proud of them."

• Huntingdon Advances to State Tournament with Victory at South Fulton
• Marshall County Refuses to Play Ball with McKenzie
• Lady Rebs Blanked in 6AA Finals
• Jean Shoppe Finishes Runner-Up in Conway Twitty Softball Tournament

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