Murphy – The Lady Bulldogs swept Cherokee last week, with Murphy winning 13-11 in Cherokee before coming back to win 6-5 in Murphy in an extra-inning game.
In the first game on March 12, Murphy (2-1) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, holding the Lady Braves (1-2) hitless through four innings. Pitcher Paisley Johnson shut down the Lady Braves’ bats, retiring them in order for three innings and only facing one extra batter in the fourth inning. Murphy added three more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 7-0 lead via a three-run Johnson homer.
After a pitching change in the fifth, the Braves came alive, batting around to cut Murphy’s lead to 7-4. With two outs in the top of the sixth, two Murphy runners reached on errors by the Lady Braves, and Johnson hit her second home run of the game to give the Lady Dogs a 10-4 lead.
Errors plagued the Lady Dogs in the bottom of the sixth after the first two batters reached on errors. After one was thrown out on the base-paths, a double brought the first run of the inning home. After another out, the next batter doubled to bring in the second run.
Murphy walked the next two batters to load the bases. A pitch hit the next batter to bring another run in, and the next batter was walked to make the score 10-7. Cherokee’s first baseman cleared the bases with a grand slam to give the Lady Braves an 11-10 lead going into the seventh.
Back-to-back singles by Taryn Morrow and Gracie Thrasher gave the Lady Dogs runners on first and second before a double put the Lady Dogs back on top 12-10. Emma Hensley singled to give the Dogs a 13-11 lead. After being relieved in the fourth inning Johnson returned to the mound in the sixth to put an end to the Lady Braves’ rally.
She closed the Braves down in the seventh to give Murphy its first conference win of the year. Johnson was the winning pitcher, going 5.2 innings while giving up two hits and no runs. She also was 2-5 at the plate with two homers and six RBI. Aiden Smith and Sani Wilson both went 3-5 at the plate, with Wilson adding a solo homer.
On Thursday, Cherokee came to Murphy for the second game of the week and jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first inning. The Lady Braves seemed to figure out the secret to hitting off Johnson, as they got three hits for three runs in the first. A couple of Murphy errors helped the Lady Braves in their efforts in the first inning.
Murphy got one run in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of three back-to-back singles. Aiden Smith’s single scored Julia Dockery for the Lady Dogs’ run, while Murphy stranded the other two runners.
The score stayed the same until the top of the fourth inning, when Cherokee added two more runs to extend its lead to 5-1. Murphy answered in the bottom of the fourth with singles by Tarin Morrow and Calista Rumfelt before a walk by Gracie Thrasher loaded the bases. Julia Dockery got a base hit to score two runs to cut Cherokee’s lead to 5-3.
Murphy’s pitching shut out the Lady Braves over the next two innings, so the Lady Dogs entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 5-3. Taryn Morrow got them going with a one-out single. Paisley Johnson moved her over with a two-out single, and Emma Laney walked to load the bases. Sania Wilson scored Morrow and Johnson with a single, and the Lady Dogs tied the score 5-5 to send the game into extra innings.
Murphy held Cherokee scoreless in the top of the eighth. Taryn Morrow got on base with a one-out double, and Gracie thrasher singled to give the Lady Bulldogs a 6-5 overtime win.
Johnson gave up five runs off of 10 hits. She struck out nine and walked two. Emma Hensley led the Lady Dogs at the plate, as she went 3-3 with three singles and a RBI.
The Lady Dogs share an early lead with a 2-0 record in the Smoky Mountain Conference. Their next game is Tuesday, March 26, when they will play host to Andrews. First pitch is at 4:30 p.m.