Murphy softball played its first two Smoky Mountain Conference games last week against Swain County and fell in both. However, the Lady Bulldogs did get a big win over Smoky Mountain.
To start the week, Murphy fell to Swain 6-2 at home on March 18. The Lady Dogs’ two runs were scored by Emma Laney and Piper Dalton, with Dalton’s run coming on a home run.
Trying to bounce back from the loss, the Lady Dogs hosted Smoky Mountain on March 19. The Lady Dogs defeated Smoky Mountain in five innings with a walk-off walk to mercy rule them 12-2.
The scoring started in the top of the second inning, when Smoky Mountain loaded the bases and drove in a run to take a 1-0 lead. After loaded the bases, Lady Dogs pitcher Gracie Thrasher ended the inning with a strikeout to only allow one run to score.
Murphy’s bats got going in the bottom of the second frame. Aiden Smith hit an RBI single to right field to drive in the game-tying run.
Jenna Cook then hit a ground ball up to middle to score a run and give Murphy a 2-1 lead. On a passed ball, Grace Moore singled and a run scored to extend their lead to 3-1.
The Lady Dogs weren’t done yet. Julia Dockery hit a sacrifice ground ball to score a run, then Emma Hensley did the same in the next at-bat to give the Dogs a 5-1 lead.
Smoky Mountain scored its last run on a sacrifice bunt to bring the game to 5-2.
In the bottom of the third, the Lady Dogs added two more runs on RBI singles by Smith and Moore.
In the bottom of the fourth the Lady Dogs continued to add on to their lead. Hensley started the inning with a leadoff home run.
Paisley Johnson hit a RBI single to center field, then Smith singled to right field to drive in a run to make it 10-2. With two outs, Moore singled to left field to drive home their 11th run of the game.
Thrasher pitched two strikeouts in the top of the fifth inning to keep it a nine-run ballgame.
Only needing one run to end the game, the Dogs stayed patient and earned that run. With the bases loaded, Johnson stayed patient in the batter’s box and was walked, with Hensley scoring the game-ending run.
The Lady Dogs earned their third win of the season with a 12-2 defeat of Smoky Mountain.
After the win, head coach Billy Dockery said, “We did a better job hitting the ball today up and down the lineup. We made adjustments that we needed to make in the box to get the hits that we needed. We were hitting when people were on base; in Tuesday’s game, hit were kind of spread out and not timely hits.”
Dockery added that they will carry the momentum from the win over Smoky Mountain into Friday’s game against Swain County. Both Thrasher and Hensley played well.
“They were two big pieces in the offense and defense,” Dockery said.
To close out their three-game week, the Lady Dogs headed to Bryson City and fell to Swain 2-0. The Lady Devils’ two runs came in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Following their three games last week, the Lady Dogs move to 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the Smoky Mountain Conference. They will look to improve this week.
In their next two games, the Lady Dogs will face non-conference opponents. Today at 4 p.m., they will play host to Rosman. On Thursday, they will travel to Tennessee to take on Tellico Plains for the second time this season.