Travel softball team takes home World Series win.
Cleveland, Tenn. – After losing their spring sports seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Lady Rebels travel softball team, were prepared to handle the challenge of working their way through the loser’s bracket after falling in their first game of the World Series competition in Cleveland, Tenn., in late June.
The travel team – consisting of players from Andrews, Copper Basin, Hiwassee Dam and Murphy – rallied back on the following day, winning four straight games, including two over the top-seeded team, to bring home the championship.
“It’s been a difficult year with everything that’s happened with COVID-19,” Lady Rebel coach Mark Brooks said. “We started practicing softball and they opened up on the Tennessee side about playing tournaments so we got back involved in it. The girls practiced hard and you could tell that they wanted to since they’d been cooped up inside.”
Pitcher Kaitlyn Goode (Copper Basin) held Team Alliance to just two runs in the first game, a 7-1 win for the Lady Rebels, and started strong in the second, with Hiwassee Dam’s Lauren Brooks coming in to finish the job after the first inning of the second game.
The second game, which would decide the championship, ended up coming down to the final inning, with the Hiwassee Dam’s Sydney Payne sliding into home for the game-winning run after an throw-out error by Team Alliance.
“Lauren held them to 0 runs for the remainder of that game and it ended up coming down to the last inning,” Brooks said of the championship game. “The first two batters got out, Sydney Payne walked and then we had an infield hit that put runners on first and second.
“Then a passed ball occurred and they both took off, the catcher tried to throw Sydney out at third base and the baseman missed it,” he continued. “So Sydney got to continue on while the left fielder grabbed it and it was a bang-bang play at the plate, and she slid in for the winning run.”
The Lady Rebels recently finished in second place at another tournament this past weekend in Cleveland, with the championship game not starting until 2 a.m. and a couple of the team’s players on vacation.