Murphy – Paisley Johnson of the “Lady Diamond Dogs” has pitched five games over the last two weeks and given up two runs.
In 31 innings pitched, she has struck out 57 batters, walked only six and given up only four earned runs. Four of those last five were shutouts.
However, the problem the Lady Dogs faced on April 2 was that Hiwassee Dam has a pretty good pitcher of their own in Olivia McNabb. What happens when two excellent pitchers get together for a pitcher’s battle is you end up having a game that goes extra all the way to 10 innings.
In their first meeting on April 2, Hiwassee Dam (5-4) didn’t have a baserunner until the bottom of the fifth inning. In fact, Paisley Johnson faced the minimum of 12 batters through four innings. The only problem for Murphy (8-1) was every time they thought they had figured Olivia McNabb out, she would slam the door shut.
Gracie Thrasher reached on a single in the top of the second, but was later gunned down on a fielder’s choice at second base. McNabb faced a more serious challenge in the third inning, when the Lady Dogs loaded the bases with only one out.
Back-to-back, one-out singles by Emma Hensley and Aiden Smith, then a walk by Johnson, had the bases full of Lady Dogs with one out. But McNabb stuck out the next two batters she faced to strand the base-runners.
Meanwhile, Johnson wasn’t letting the Lady Eagles even sniff a base. In the fifth inning, Eagles’ Sky Taylor had a leadoff single and was able to steal second base, but Johnson retired the next three batters.
At the end of seven innings, Johnson had faced only 23 batters, striking out a remarkable 17. McNabb had faced 32 batters, retiring 15.
Murphy nor Hiwassee Dam had much of a threat in the eighth inning. Hiwassee Dam did threaten in the bottom of the ninth, when Johnson issued one of her rare walks to Avery McNabb with two outs in the inning.
She was advanced to third when Brinkley Payne singled and reached second on an error. A good infield play by Julia Dockery stopped the Eagles’ scoring threat in the ninth inning.
After McNabb gave up a leadoff single to Emma Laney, she was pulled. A walk and an error loaded the bases with Lady Bulldogs.
Julia Dockery them put the Lady Dogs up by two with a two-run RBI double. Emma Hensley scored another run with a sacrifice fly, and Aiden Smith reached on an error to score the fourth run.
Johnson gave up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 10th frame but struck out the next three Lady Eagles to seal the win. She finished the night with 25 strikeouts, giving up no runs on three hits.
McNabb finished the night with 19 strikeouts, giving up one run on 11 hits. The final three runs scored by Murphy were not charged to her.
The finale to this pitchers’ duel took place at Murphy on Friday. It started much the way the earlier match had, with both teams trying to figure out how to hit the other one’s pitchers.
Hiwassee Dam seemed like they had found the formula as they tagged Johnson for two hits in the top of the first inning. Avery McNabb got on with a one out single and the stole second base. Sky Taylor advanced her to third with a two-out single, but Johnson shut the side down when she struck out Katie McNabb to end the inning.
Murphy answered the bell and got themselves two base-runners of their own in the first inning. Emma Laney reached on an error. Paisley Johnson walked to give Murphy two aboard with two outs, but McNabb struck out the next Murphy batter to end the inning.
The next inning went as about as expected, with both pitchers making opposing batters lives miserable. Johnson faced eight batters in the second and third innings, striking out five. McNabb stuck out Murphy’s side in the second inning and was on her way to retiring them in order in the third.
That’s when Callie Rumfelt reached on an error to lead off . Olivia McNabb retired the next two batters before Emma Laney singled to move Rumfelt to second and Johnson walked to load the bases. Again, McNabb slammed the door shut, retiring the next batter.
After a leadoff walk in the top of the fourth, Johnson proceeded to retire the next three batters with strikeouts. She would not give up a hit the rest of the game.
Coach Bill Dockery of the Lady Bulldogs decided on a new strategy in this game. He didn’t want a repeat of the 10-inning marathon, so he decided on a new strategy of manufacturing runs – and it worked.
Sani Wilson bunted for a leadoff single, in the fourth inning, as she beat the throw to first base with her speed. Gracie Thrasher bunted her over to second. Aiden Smith moved Wilson to third on a ground ball, and Callie Rumfelt singled to score Wilson and give Murphy a 1-0 lead.
Murphy tried the same strategy in the fifth inning and, even with the Lady Eagles helping with an error, McNabb was able to keep them from scoring. Heading into the bottom of the sixth with Murphy leading 1-0, Hiwassee Dam had only had one base-runner since the third inning.
Aiden Smith got the Lady Dogs going in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff walk. Julia Dockery doubled to score Smith and Emma Hensley doubled to score Dockery. Johnson closed the game out in the top of the seventh to give the Dogs their second conference victory of the week.
Both teams are off this week and will return to conference play next week. After spring break, Murphy will travel to Smoky Mountain on Monday, then play a two-game series against Hayesville on Tuesday and April 19. Meanwhile, Hiwassee Dam will face off with Robbinsville on Tuesday and April 19.