Teams will try to play district championship at 2 p.m. Saturday

By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Brentwood became the first District 11-AAA team to hand Ravenwood’s softball team a loss this season, winning 5-4 Friday to earn a spot in the championship and also a regional semifinal next week.

RHS later bounced back to stave off elimination, though, against Independence 5-2 – grabbing the district’s other spot in Monday’s regional round and getting yet another rematch with rival BHS in the 11-AAA final.

The storms blew up again just after that game finished, postponing the Lady Bruins-Lady Raptors championship game until 2 p.m. Saturday at Ravenwood. RHS will have to win twice to win the title and get a home game Monday, with an if-game played immediately afterward Saturday.   

“It was a really big win for us. We never beat them in the regular season,” said BHS left fielder Haley Robison.

Robison twice threw out a runner at the plate to save runs and help secure the upset. The game was resumed in the fourth inning, tied 2-2, after being suspended by lightning Thursday.

The score went to 3-2, 3-3, 4-3 and then 4-4 until Kiersten Stanley drove in the winning run in the top of the seventh. Stanley scored Whitney Christian, who had doubled.

 “There were a lot of key moments,” Lady Bruins Coach Clint Finch said. “We had several girls with two-out RBIs that were huge. We were fortunate enough to throw two runners out at the plate that obviously were difference-makers in the game. Our pitcher is a freshman, Jordan Galloway, and she did a good job keeping them off-balance. It was a team effort, but we certainly had some people step up in key moments.”

Ashley Rahrer had the fourth-inning RBI in the fourth for BHS, and Carissa Schmittou’s RBI brought home Ferrari for the go-ahead run in the fifth.

Brentwood is now 1-4 against Ravenwood for the season. The Lady Bruins also avenged four district losses this season by shocking both top-seeded RHS and No. 2 seed Independence in the tournament.

“It’s tough when you play a team a lot of times, to beat them” every time,” Lady Raptors Coach Kari Akin said.

Ravenwood, which got a homer from Lakin Singleton against Brentwood, jumped out to a quick 3-0 first-inning lead against Independence in the losers’ bracket final. The Lady Raptors will have to wait a day to get another chance at BHS after the storms whipped up again just before the championship game would have started Friday.

 “It’s intense because we were all ready to play last night and it got rained out, and then we got here again and it started coming,” Ravenwood shortstop Hannah Trainer said. “But I’m glad we could refocus and come out and win that last game, and we’re ready to take on Brentwood again tomorrow.”

If weather causes delays Saturday, a rare Sunday game (or games) would be played, Akin said. If the championship is totally wiped out, athletic directors from the two schools would probably have to decide seeding for the regions.

TSSAA by-laws don’t call for any procedures – and in fact, don’t call for a district tournament to be played, Finch said. The district just has two determine two teams to send to regionals, he said.

“We’re here to play. We don’t want to try to back into a home game,” the BHS coach said. “The biggest thing is we guaranteed ourselves a Monday game, and that’s huge.

“… We’re hoping that builds momentum going into the championship.”