The Alcoa Tornadoes faced the Forrest Rockets in the winners’ bracket final of the TSSAA Class 2A state tournament at Starplex on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Alcoa won 10-6. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY DAVE LINK
MURFREESBORO – Alcoa’s softball team hadn’t won a state tournament game in five appearances before this week.
Now, the Lady Tornadoes are unbeaten in three games this week and are one victory from the Class AA state championship.
Alcoa (28-12) defeated two-time defending state champion Forrest 10-6 Friday night in the winners-bracket final at the Murfreesboro Sports Complex.
The Lady Tornadoes will play the winner of Saturday morning’s Forrest-Loretto losers-bracket final in the championship round in the afternoon at 2:30 CT.
Alcoa would have to lose twice to not win the title.
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“We’ve scouted all the teams and our coaching staff spent a lot of time trying to put our kids in the best situation to win,” Alcoa coach Sarah Fekete-Bailey said. “Today, we just told them our whole thing since we got on the bus to come down here is to do two things, come down here and compete, and if they do that, we just have to worry about ourselves and the rest will take care of itself.”
Forrest had 10 hits but committed five errors.
Alcoa had seven hits and made two errors.
“We made a couple of errors too,” Fekete-Bailey said. “That’s going to happen when people put the ball in play, so just rolling with it and looking to the next pitch. Our kids did a fantastic job. Our last game we had a couple of baserunning miscues, and I told them this morning something we could do better is our baserunning.”
Forrest scored three runs in the first inning.
Alcoa answered with five runs in the bottom of the first.
Forrest tied it 5-all in the top of the third, but the Lady Tornadoes took the lead for good with a three-run fourth and added two more in the fifth.
“They have some fantastic hitters and they’re no strangers to being here,” Fekete-Bailey said. “I was just proud of our kids’ fight. That’s what we talked about, compete every single inning, that we’re not out of it until the last pitch is thrown.”
Cassa Arnold started for Alcoa and went 4 and two-thirds innings, giving up five hits, walked two, and struck out three.
Gabby Burkhart threw the last 2 and one-thirds innings and allowed five hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Alcoa shortstop Italia Kyle went 2 for 4 with an RBI and scored twice, and Jaylyn Halliburton was 1 for 4 with two RBIs. Halliburton hit a two-run homer in the pivotal fourth inning.
Fekete-Bailey, in her fourth year as Alcoa’s coach, already considers this a banner season – and a state title would make it even better.
“Any day I get to play with these kids is an exciting day,” she said. “It’s a special group. I told them before we came here if our season ended today, that they’ve had a truly successful season and that I’m so proud of them. It’s only fitting that this was the group I started with.
“They came their freshman year and now the legacy they’re potentially leaving is awesome.”