MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Central's Lady Purple Pounders could've used about a day and a half off to replenish energy after outlasting Greenbrier 2-1 in a 13-inning marathon softball game Thursday in the TSSAA Class AA state tournament. Instead, they may not have even gotten a half hour.
Challenged by more than just their opponent, the Lady Pounders ended up no match for Christian Academy of Knoxville, which won 13-1 in four innings at Starplex No. 2 and ended Central's season.
"CAK has a good ball team," Central coach LeeAnne Shurette said. "But if we're fresh, it doesn't go that way."
The Lady Pounders were anything but fresh against the Lady Warriors after battling Greenbrier for more than three hours before anything was settled. And to call it a pitchers' duel is an understatement.
Senior right-handers Brooke Parrott of Central and Savannah Dalton of Greenbrier could not have been much more focused on their tasks for the inordinate amount of time it took to play the game. It was scoreless through nine innings, then went to the international tiebreaker.
Both pitchers gave up a run in the 10th. In the end, none of the scores in the game were earned runs.
Dalton, who took a perfect game into the seventh, gave up four hits and had 19 strikeouts. Her only walk was issued to Cassidy Simms with one in the top of the 13th - with the bases loaded.
The Lady Bobcats got their runner who started the inning at second base to third with a sacrifice bunt. But Parrott, who gave up eight hits and one walk, got a popout before ending it with her 14th strikeout.
"That was hard-fought. They played their hearts out," Shurette said of her players. "And we were the visiting team. That means there's even more pressure in the international tiebreaker. You have to do something to hold them one more time, one more time, one more time."
After throwing 198 pitches (Dalton threw 154), Parrott tried to continue being the workhorse she's been all season and started the next game. But CAK got to her for six runs in the first two innings, although the only earned runs came on winning pitcher Allison Zimmerman's two-run homer in the first.
The Lady Pounders' run came in the fourth on Mikayla Gill's double.
Central won the District 6 and Region 3 championships and ends its season 30-11.
"Of course we wanted to fight all the way back through," said Shurette, whose team was dropped to the losers bracket by Creek Wood in its tournament opener. "But I wouldn't trade them for another group. They came out here and fought, fought, fought."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.