East Surry – Hiwassee Dam softball head coach Roger Adams just wished his team got one more hit. One more hit that could’ve made the difference between going home and advancing in the first round of the playoffs, instead of losing to East Surry.
That hit never came, and the Lady Eagles fell to the Cardinals 4-3 in the first round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A playoffs on May 4.
“Both teams were evenly matched I felt,” Adams said. “it was a good solid game. Our defense was very, very good … made some extra plays. It came down to one hit, one hit could’ve changed it in any direction.”
The game was originally scheduled for May 3 but pushed back a day due to rain. That didn’t really
affect Hiwassee Dam, which was only 20 minutes into the nearly five-hour bus drive to East Surry. The bus turned around, the Eagles hit in the cage, then left Hiwassee Dam the next day at 7:30 a.m. to travel to the game.
The Cardinals jumped out a 2-0 lead, but one run in the top of the third inning, and then a two-run double by Dezeray Adams in the top of the fourth gave Hiwassee Dam a 3-2 lead. Both teams had chances to put more runs on the board until the bottom of the sixth, when a two-run homer from Riley Pennington in the bottom of the sixth gave East Surry a 4-3 lead. The Lady Eagles went quietly in the top of the seventh, going 1-2-3 to end their season.
“I told the girls I was more upset for them because I thought they deserved to go farther in this playoff system than what they did,” Adams said. “I felt they worked hard and earned it, but they just kept coming up one hit short.”
The loss brought a successful season to an end, as Hiwassee Dam went 10-5 overall and finished third in the Smoky Mountain Conference in Adams’ first full year as head coach after taking over in 2020. The Lady Eagles were competitive in every one of their games, with three losses coming by one run and losses to Robbinsville by four and five runs, respectively.
Hiwassee Dam will lose its best two players in senior catcher Dezeray Adams and pitcher/first base Katie Gibson, but the future still looks bright for the Lady Eagles. Payton Palmer and Lauren Brooks were the only two other upperclassmen on the 11-player roster, with the other seven players being freshman and sophomores.
Sophomores Kiera Taylor and Allison Stiles had strong seasons at the plate, as did freshman Taylee Hall. On the mound, Brooks finished the season strong, going from the change of pace pitcher behind Gibson to the starter.
Brooks went 6⅓ innings in the regular-season finale against Murphy, then went five innings and gave up just two runs in the loss to East Surry. That’s a good core to build around, which makes coach Adams optimistic about the coming years for the program.
“We’re losing two major seniors for sure,” he said. “But we’re also gaining some young athletes that have been playing ball for a while and are going to add a different dynamic to this team.”