It takes a special person to play third base in softball and even a more fearless one to man the hot corner for the defending state champion Forrest Lady Rockets. Senior Karley Daughrity is one of those special players, blossoming into a lockdown defender and a solid offensive weapon in her sophomore season...
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It takes a special person to play third base in softball and even a more fearless one to man the hot corner for the defending state champion Forrest Lady Rockets.
Senior Karley Daughrity is one of those special players, blossoming into a lockdown defender and a solid offensive weapon in her sophomore season.
Daughrity’s talents did not go unnoticed as she recently signed a Letter of Intent to attend Martin Methodist College in Pulaski next season.
“This is amazing, it’s crazy how life is flowing so fast, it was just like yesterday we won state, and now I’m signing to go to college,” Daughrity said. “Martin Methodist was a good choice for me because I wanted to go somewhere that felt like home and when I visited there it felt like Chapel Hill.”
“I really want to play my freshman year and I think if I work my butt off I can get to where I want to be.”
Martin Methodist assistant coach Kaelin Dawson invited Daughrity for a campus visit in August and it didn’t take long for Dawson and the RedHawks’ coaching staff to make the decision that they wanted Daughrity on their team.
“The second she got on the field I could already tell I loved the way she carried herself, just a strong athletic kid,” Dawson said. “The funny thing was while she was doing her field workout our maintenance crew was out doing their work and they called coach Paul (head coach Brandy Paul) and they were like you gotta come over and watch this kid, so in that 30 minutes of her being on the field we knew we wanted her.”
Daughrity started all 42 games in the 2018-2019 title season, batting .365 with a .417 on base percentage and a .531 slugging percentage.
Daughrity had 13 doubles, drove in 27 runs, scored 22 runs, and bashed a home run in a 12-0 win over Cornersville on April 10.
“Karley shows up and puts in the work,” Forrest head coach Shelby Lightfoot said. “She is the kid that is going to show up every day and give 100 percent on her good days and bad days and if she is not doing well she will continue to put in the work to get better.”
After playing just three games last season before the COVID-19 pandemic erased her junior season, Daughrity and the three-time state champion Lady Rockets are poised for big things in 2021.
“2020 was very disappointing, I was so upset with our seniors not being able to play with us one last time,” Daughrity said. “Our whole softball team was depressed during that time.”
Forrest has a storied history with 17 state tournament appearances and four runner-up finishes to go along with the three state crowns, but the one thing they have not been able to accomplish is to win back-to-back state championships.
“I’m so excited, I want to get another ring before I leave,” Daughrity said. “We want to be the first team that does that.”
Daughrity sports a perfect 4.0 GPA at Forrest and wants to study business and minor in accounting at Martin Methodist.
“This has been her goal since she was little, I’m so excited to see her at a program she is excited about, she had nothing but good things to say when she came back, so I’m excited to see her journey,” Lightfoot said.
