Avery Flatford struck out 16 batters, and Farragut won its opening round game of the 2022 Class 4A state tournament, 3-0, over Stewarts Creek. (Photo by Charles Mays Media).
By JUSTIN LAMB
MURFREESBORO – Avery Flatford couldn’t have asked for a better time to have one of her best performances of the season.
The left-handed senior pitcher was dominant striking out 16 and allowing just three hits as Farragut topped Stewarts Creek 3-0 in the opening round of the Class 4A State Tournament Tuesday night.
“It wasn’t our most flashy win, but Flatford was stone cold on the mound,” said Farragut coach Nick Green.
“It’s probably the best she’s pitched the entire year. She had a great game tonight.”
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With the win, the Lady Admirals (40-3-1) advance to face Springfield (30-4), a 4-1 winner over Coffee County, at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. The loss sends the Lady Red Hawks (28-11-1) into an elimination game against Coffee County (24-15) also at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“We have a big matchup (Wednesday) morning,” Green said. “If you win that one, you don’t have to play again until Thursday night (in the winners’ bracket finals). We will see what we can do.”
Farragut, which won the Class AAA state championship last year, got its Class 4A title quest off to a quick start by striking for a run in the first inning. Addison Pressley opened the game with a walk before stealing second and eventually scoring on Lauren Brakovec’s two-out RBI single.
“First-inning runs always help,” Flatford said. “It lets the pitcher feel better knowing the offense has their back.”
The Lady Admirals had a chance to break the game open in the fourth inning loading the bases on one-out singles from Autumn Caywood and Emily Musco before Delaney Shrader was hit by a pitch with two outs. Stewarts Creek got out of the jam as pitcher Rebecca Fujino got Vivian Boles to fly out to end the threat.
The Lady Red Hawks had a chance to tie or take the lead in their half of the fourth inning as Hannah McMeen (single) and Brooke Ramsey (walk) both reached to lead off the inning, but that didn’t phase Flatford. The Tennessee Tech signee struck out the next three batters to end the threat.
“I’ve been in that situation before and I felt really confident,” Flatford said. “I had no doubts that I was going to get strikeouts, or my defense was going to make plays.”
Farragut extended its lead in the fifth inning as Pressley and Ava Guzowski scored on a two-out error on a hard ground ball from Autumn Caywood to make it 3-0.
“That was huge,” Green said. “We were focused on trying to hit the ball on the ground. That inning we did that and got the job done.”
That was more than enough run support for Flatford, who struck out five of the last six batters she faced to secure the win.
Sarah Livingston, Hailey Nichols, Brakovec, Caywood, Musco and Pressley all had hits to lead Farragut’s balanced offensive attack.
Fujino took the loss despite allowing just one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
“We didn’t set it on fire offensively, but we put enough bats together and had a break go our way,” Green said. “We scored enough runs for the win.”