Lady Rockets outlast Cornersville for season sweep

By Anthony S. Puca Sports Writer
Posted 4/27/22

The Forrest Lady Rockets completed the season sweep over Cornersville Tuesday night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill, but it wasn’t easy as the Lady Bulldogs scratched and clawed to the end …

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Lady Rockets outlast Cornersville for season sweep

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The Forrest Lady Rockets completed the season sweep over Cornersville Tuesday night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill, but it wasn’t easy as the Lady Bulldogs scratched and clawed to the end before falling 11-7.

“Our hitting was good, but we will go home and we won’t make it far in district, region, sub-state and even state if we play like that,” Forrest coach Shelby Lightfoot said. “It just depends on who we want to be, but defensively and pitching we didn’t hold.”

Forrest had 12 hits as sophomore Christa Warren led the way with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate, including two homeruns and five RBIs.

“It felt good knowing I brought in those runs we needed,” Warren said. “I just knew I had to do something for my team because Cornersville played really good and it was a battle.”

Briley Burnham, Parker Wales, and Jenna Goodman all had two hits apiece for the Lady Rockets while Macyn Kirby, Carli Warner, and Sarah King all had one base knock each.

Julie Williams started in the circle for Forrest and picked up the win, tossing the first four innings and left the game with a 7-3 lead.

“Julie had a rough first inning and then she really settled down,” Lightfoot said. “We decided the third time through we were going to put Ella in, but the only issue there was a lot of speed and that probably played right into the hands because they see a lot of speed in their district.”

Cornersville had nine hits in the contest as Emma Ward had a big stick with a two-run homerun in the third inning and a two-run double in the top of the seventh inning.

Jayli Childress, Anna Wood, and Alicia Polk all had two hits apiece for the Lady Bulldogs while Carmen Ward had one hit and it was a big one as she laced a two-run triple in the top of the seventh inning that cut the Forrest lead to 11-7 before the final out was recorded.

There was no scoring until the bottom of the second inning with Forrest scoring twice before Emma Ward’s three-run dinger in the top of the third gave Cornersville an early 3-2 lead.

Forrest came up with a five-run bottom of the fourth inning with Warren driving home three on her first long bomb and Wales and Maggie Daughrity drove home one run apiece.

Ella Chilton came to the circle for Forrest to start the top of the fifth inning and worked her way out of a bases loaded, two-out jam.

Burnham drilled an RBI double off the leftfield fence and Wales drove home a run in the bottom of the frame to make it a 9-3 contest before Chilton set down Cornersville 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth inning.

Kirby walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth before Warren drilled a homerun over the center field fence to make 11-3.

“I thought Christa had a great BP (batting practice) today and her BP’s have been getting better,” Lightfoot said. “Hats off to her, if you know her she is in the weight room every single day and even when she miss hits the ball she still has the power to get it out of here.”

Chilton got the first two outs in the top of the seventh before the Lady Bulldogs rallied with four runs on four hits and a walk with the big blow coming on Carmen Ward’s two-run triple into the right field corner.

Chilton induced a ground ball out to Kirby at shortstop to end the game and extend Forrest’s winning streak to four in a row over the Lady Bulldogs.

“Ella has to do a better job and our outfield has got to cut some balls off, we are giving up too many extra bases and fumbling the ball around a lot,” Lightfoot said. “I think all the way around you get a little relaxed having that big lead, but Ella wasn’t hitting her spots and getting ahead in the count like she usually does and she didn’t have that attack mentality, so we have to play no matter what the score is and be prepared for every at bat and every play.”

The Lady Rockets entertain Grundy County tonight and host the Cascade Lady Champions for Thursday senior night contest.

Cornersville 003 000 4-7 9 4

Forrest 020 522 X-11 12 2

Cornersville: Jayli Childress 2-for-4, Anna Wood 2-for-3, Alicia Polk 2-for-4, Emma Ward 2-for-3, Carmen Ward 1-for-4.

BB: Emma Ward, Mariah Harris.

RS: Childress 2, Emma Ward 2, Wood, Polk, Harris.

2B: Emma Ward, Polk,

3B: Carmen Ward.

HR: Emma Ward.

RBI: Emma Ward 4, Carmen Ward 2.

ROE: Polk.

FC: Childress 2.

HBP: Wood.

Team LOB: 6

Fielding

E: Emma Ward, Alisha Price, Hanna Moore, Carmen Ward.

DP: Moore, Carmen Ward.

LP: Jayli Childress (6IP, 12H, 11R, 10ER, 2K, 2BB).

Forrest: Christa Warren 3-for-4, Jenna Goodman 2-for-2, Briley Burnham 2-for-3, Parker Wales 2-for-3, Macyn Kirby 1-for-3, Carli Warner 1-for-4, Sarah King 1-for-2.

BB: Kirby, Abby Ferguson.

RS: Kirby 2, Warren 2, Goodman 2, Burnham 2, King, Addison Bunty, Wales.

2B: Burnham, Warren, Goodman.

HR: Warren 2

RBI: Warren 5, Wales 2, Burnham, Daughrity.

SAC: Bunty 2, Daughrity.

ROE: Ferguson, Bunty.

GIDP: Warner.

SB: Kirby 2, Burnham.

Team LOB: 4

Fielding

E: Kirby 2.

WP: Julie William (4IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 3K, 0BB).

Relief: Ella Chilton (3IP, 5H, 4R, 4ER, 1K, 2BB).