Coming in to Friday night’s Class 2A state sectional game versus White House Heritage at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill, the defending and three-time state champion Forrest Lady Rockets had won 12 straight pressure packed sub-state contests.

The Lady Rockets also had something else on Friday’s calendar, it was graduation day in Chapel Hill and the seniors wanted nothing more than to walk over to the ceremony in the gym after the game with a state tournament berth secured.

After spotting the Lady Patriots a second inning home run by Samantha Burke and a one-run lead, destiny prevailed as Forrest manufactured a pair of small ball runs go on top 2-1 before the big bats began to heat up for a lethal combination that was punctuated with a monster three-run home run by senior Laura Mealer to cap off an 8-2 win.

“We talked about a little bit about if it’s a 0-0 ballgame can we manufacture one run,” Forrest coach Shelby Lightfoot said. “We got a little bit behind off the bat tonight, we just wanted to manufacture one run to get back even, and then we could get our big bats going again.”

“I feel we are doing our small ball well or better, so that makes us feel good.”

Mealer, an MTSU signee and the District 12-AA offensive Player of the Year, had uncharacteristically committed three errors in the games and was just waiting for a chance at redemption.

Her senior classmates had her back the entire time as the District 12-AA Pitcher of the Year Ashley Milligan turned in another gem in the circle.

The Walters State Community College signee went the distance, giving up one earned run on just three hits, while striking out 13 and issuing a lone base on balls.

University of Kentucky signee Jenna Blanton was almost unstoppable as the lightning quick lefty reached base three times on picture perfect bunts in the small ball attack that put tremendous pressure on the White House Heritage defense.

As has been the case all season, if the runners get on base, seniors Karley Daughrity and Katelyn Helmick will move them around and knock them in.

Both Helmick (Motlow State Community College) and Daughrity (Martin Methodist College) had sacrifice bunts in the game and they both had a double with Helmick’s leading off the three-run fifth inning and Daughrity’s finishing it off with an RBI two-bagger that gave Forrest a 5-1 cushion.

The scrappy Lady Patriots made it a 5-2 contest in the top of the sixth inning and with one out in the home half of the frame, senior pinch-hit specialist Carli Warner went down 0-2 in the count before working a base on balls.

Maggie Daughrity re-entered before Blanton laid down a spinner and easily beat the throw to first base.

After a fly out for the second out, Mealer stepped in the batter’s box not knowing whether she would ever see a pitch to hit.

The first three pitches from Lady Patriots’ hurler Kinsley Caruthers were unhittable before she made a fatal mistake, laying the fourth pitch in the strike zone and Mealer sent it deep over the centerfield fence to make it an 8-2 ballgame.

“I always have the green light, the coaches actually trust me enough with the green light,” Mealer said. “I was like, come on kid, you made three errors and Ashley has been pitching her tail off.”

“I was like do something here, it’s your time to shine and I was just looking for one pitch to drive and let it go, that’s all I was thinking.”

That set the stage for Milligan to finish it off in the top of the seventh and make it to graduation on time.

Milligan was facing the top of the White House Heritage order and she got the first out on a pretty change up for a strikeout and the second out was a line drive to Mealer at shortstop.

With anticipation building, Milligan issued her only walk of the game before Mealer scooped up a ground ball and raced to the bag at second for the force out to end the game and send Forrest to its 19th state tournament appearance on the 30th anniversary of its first trip in 1991.

After a season lost to the Covid 19 pandemic that brought on a major reshuffling of the lineup, the Lady Rockets (27-3-1) enter the state tournament on an 18-game winning streak and will begin defense of their 2019 title versus the Covington Lady Chargers (29-9) in the first round of the 2021 Spring Fling Spring Sports Championships tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. on Field #2 at the Starplex complex in Murfreesboro.

“It’s extremely exciting, we knew for a fact last year that we had the team to go and win it all once again,” Mealer said. “Being able to take the whole year off and come back and have the same goal and the same mentality and actually make it to where you want to go is a big deal for us.”

Forrest sports a 37-29 all-time record in state tournament play with titles in 2008, 2015, and 2019 and runner-up finishes in 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2017.

“Last year was hard, we felt last year could have been our year to repeat, but Covid happened and it interfered with that goal,” Lightfoot said. “But we had a good feeling going in to this year, we are still a little young in some aspects, but our young ones have stepped up and they actually stepped up early for us tonight and that makes us feel good.”

Covington has made 22 state tournament appearances with the last one coming in 2010 and the Lady Chargers have finished as runner-ups four times (2010, 2006, 1989, and 1986).

“Our expectations are to go play our game,” Lightfoot said. “As far as our bats, if you give us two or three runs against these good teams, we feel like we can win some ballgames.”

“We have to sure some things up on defense, when you get to Murfreesboro the fields are hard and it’s going to be hot, so a little bit of it will be the mental aspect of it going in to next week.”

Note: Tickets for all events for the 2021 Spring Fling Championships are now on sale. New this year, all tickets must be purchased online in advance using GoFan, TSSAA’s digital ticketing provider, and be presented at the gate on a smartphone. All tickets are $12 per day and there are different tickets for each venue. Tickets can be purchased at https://gofan.co/tssaa. Spectators can also visit https://tssaasports.com/springfling/ for schedules and brackets for each sport.

White House Heritage 010 001 0-2 3 3

Forrest 011 303 X-8 8 3

White House Heritage: Madison Myers 2-for-3, Samantha Burke 1-for-3.

BB: Annie Dill.

RS: Hayden Duff, Burke.

2B: Myers.

HR: Burke.

RBI: Myers, Burke.

SAC: Brynna Hinshaw.

ROE: Burke 2, Duff.

FC: Duff.

SB: Burke.

Team LOB: 5

Fielding

E: Dill, Julianne Glodoski, Kinsley Caruthers.

LP: Kinsley Caruthers (6IP, 8H, 8R, 7ER, 2K, 4BB).

Forrest: Jenna Blanton 3-for-4, Karley Daughrity 1-for-3, Laura Mealer 1-for-2, Macyn Kirby 1-for-3, Katelyn Helmick 1-for-1, Maggie Daughrity 1-for-2.

BB: Mealer 2, Helmick, Carli Warner.

RS: Blanton 2, Maggie Daughrity 2, Mealer, Kirby, Helmick, Warner.

2B: Karley Daughrity, Helmick, Kirby.

HR: Mealer.

RBI: Mealer 3, Blanton, Briley Burnham, Karley Daughrity, Abby Ferguson, Ashley Milligan.

SAC: Karley Daughrity, Helmick.

SF: Ferguson, Milligan.

ROE: Maggie Daughrity.

SB: Blanton, Mealer.

Team LOB: 5

Fielding

E: Mealer 3.

WP: Ashely Milligan (7IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, 13K, 1BB).