10-0
Hallie Grace perfect, Lady Ads near perfect in romp, claim Dist. 4-4A title
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Rylee Raby, FHS sophomore catcher/designated hitter, made contact for a first-inning hit versus the Lady Mountaineers. - Photos by Alan Sloan
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Reacting to an infield grounder was Alexa Shrader, Farragut junior third baseman, against Heritage. - Photos by Alan Sloan
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Lady Admiral senior Amelia Dorset used a backdoor slide to make it into second base safely against the Lady Mountaineers. - Photos by Alan Sloan
When Farragut High School softball is powering on all cylinders, watch out.
A near perfect performance by the Lady Admirals as a whole was, in fact, a perfect game performance by Hallie Grace Johnson, FHS staff ace pitcher as a sophomore.
Johnson, improving her overall record to 16-5 (1.678 earned run average) sat down all 15 batters from a talented William Blount line-up in a District 4-4A showdown of the district’s top two teams at Farragut’s Bellamy Field Monday evening, April 28.
With solid production by almost every Lady Ads batter — including the bottom of the order — Nick Green’s girls blanked the Lady Govs 10-0 in five innings to win the district crown with a perfect 10-0 mark, improving to 24-9-1 overall. William Blount, the No. 2 seed and host of the district tournament, which begins today (Wednesday, April 30), fell to 8-2, 16-11.
“Lots of thing were working well; my curveball was working well,” said Johnson, who struck out three while benefitting from her defense, which included a nice leaping grab in short right-center field from second baseman Taylor Albright in the second inning.
“It was amazing to have that defense behind me,” the sophomore added.
“She was doing a good job of spotting her ball,” coach Green said of Johnson. “They had a lot of weak contact.”
Logan Jameson, freshman leadoff hitter and starting center fielder, connected for three singles and scored two runs. Though walked twice intentionally, star shortstop and Tennessee Lady Vols signee Elsa Morrison — team leader in all key batting statistics — smoked a double and a single with one RBI.
Albright, just a sophomore and the No. 9 hitter, connected for a two-RBi double down the left field line while also adding an RBI single. “Albright had a really good night,” Green said. “Callie (Brown) had good at-bats. Up and down the order we had some really good at-bats.”
Eleena Ralston, sophomore left fielder, added an RBI single before ending the game in the bottom of the fifth with another RBI single.
Johnson helped her own cause as a pitcher by lacing a double and two singles, contributing one RBI.
Ava Barnes added an RBI single. Brown and Alexa Shrader, a junior, each contributed a single. Dajah Means, Camryn Shrader, Alyssa Rohn and Effy Armstrong each scored runs as courtesy runners.
“They came out hitting the ball; they hit it well — and their pitcher, she locked us down and did a fantastic job,” WBHS head coach Nick Roddy said.
