statman3

What about pool play?

You're right stlbird, he may have been a little enthusiastic about some of the specifcs, however, Unicoi did compete in the Gold championship game of the Azalea Invitational in Charleston, SC that saw the following ranked teams participate in and suffer their first losses of the season. Fact is Unicoi has something really special brewing up there in their corner of NE Tennessee, and I certainly understand why this fan feels inclined to draw some attention to it. NFCA National Rankings 04/09/09: 1 Sheldon (California) 12-0 0 1 2 Klein Oak (Texas) 20-0 0 3 3 Naples (Florida) 19-1 0 4 4 Norco (California) 11-2 0 5 5 Alexander Central (North Carolina) 10-0 0 8 6 Freedom (California) 10-2 0 11 7 Arch Bishop Mitty (California) 10-0 0 15 8 Red Bank Catholic (New Jersey) 1-0 0 12 9 Elkins (Texas) 24-4 0 13 10 Canyon Del Oro (Arizona) 20-2 0 2 11 Pembroke Pines (Florida) 22-1 0 NR 12 Battlefield (Virginia) 7-0 0 14 13 Lockport (Illinois) 7-0 0 17 14 Stratford (South Carolina) 17-0 0 19 15 Niceville (Florida) 18-1 0 6 16 Beech (Tennessee) 12-0 0 23 17 Ballard (Kentucky) 9-0 0 24 18 Barrington (Illinois) 9-0 0 NR 19 Mount Carmel (Louisiana) 26-3 0 18 20 Galesburg-Augusta (Michigan) 1-0 0 20 21 Butler (North Carolina) 8-1 0 21 22 Grants Pass (Oregon) 5-1 0 22 23 Masuk (Connecticut) 0-0 0 25 24 Red Mountain (Arizona) 18-3 0 7 25 Broad Run (Virginia) 5-1 0 9 Others receiving votes: Bishop O'Connell (Virginia); Christian County (Kentucky); Cibola (New Mexico); Clements (Texas); Elyria (Ohio); Etwanda (California); Fletcher (Florida); Hueytown (Alabama); Lake Hamilton (Arkansas); Marist (Oregon); Mauldin (South Carolina); North Davidson (North Carolina); Ooltewah (Tennessee); St. Amant (Louisiana); Timber Creek (Florida); Tom Rivers East (New Jersey)

Don't look now but Unicoi County has something pretty special going on down in Summerville, SC. Carrying their 24 and 0 record into the Gold bracket championship of the Azalea Invitational vs. Allen County - Scottsville, KY. Allen County - Scottsville eliminated USA TodayNFCA #19 Stratford, SC earlier today. Good Luck Lady Blue Devils!

Agreed! If mid sixties is means 65 or higher....then I am not aware of any this year who get there and I have seen 90% of them. My favorite quote regarding speed..."It's not how fast a pitcher can make the ball move TOWARD the bat, but how fast the pitcher can make the ball move AWAY from the bat". Now if you happen to get both in one pitcher, then you have something special.

Lady Chief's play strong defense and leverage the effort into a #1 seed for bracket play. That prooved to be material as they were able to get favorable matchups in bracket play. Key moment of the weekend for the lady chiefs was a saturday morning "ACT" game where the lady chiefs minus 4 starters and behind freshman pitcher Lindsee Price stepped up and delivered a 5 to 0 shutout of Gate City preserving the #1 seeding. After the first round of Sunday bracket play, the final four shaped up to be an IMAC/Watauga Conference showdown. East and Unicoi met in the semi-finals where Unicoi plated a couple of late runs to squeek out a 3 to 2 win. Cherokee and Elizabethton went into extra innings AGAIN with the lady chiefs getting a clutch hit from Abby Hughes AGAIN to take the 1 to 0 8 inning victory. Championship game was incredible. Lady Chiefs and Lady Devils are scoreless into the 10th when Unicoi plated the international tie break runner. This was the first run of the tournament allowed by Cherokee. Lady Chiefs respond by plating their ITB in bottom of 10. Same thing occured in 11th before Unicoi scored 2 in the top of the 12th and lady chiefs could not answer. Some intense softball action in the extra innings. Multiple great individual defensive efforts. Several double plays to get out of jams. Some invaluable experience in big game pressure situations for the lady chief youth. Will be looking for that to come back and pay dividends later in the season. Oh.....and the weather was perfect! Congratulations to the lady devils from Unicoi on their championship, butnot going to shed any tears over this one....it was a great effort.

Yea Lance! Special request here for your take on the Eastman tournament this weekend. Time to expand your coverage a little.

Don't go away! While the Mid-state's Mrnoitall is ensightful and entertaining......he can't hold a candle to our Lance.

East TN

Early CoachT strength rankings for Regions 1,2,3 Class A 3. Harriman (2-0) 31 9. Midway (4-1) 45 11.Coalfield 12.Hampton 15. Grace Baptist 19. Unaka Class AA 3. Fulton (2-0) 62 4. Unicoi Co. (9-0) 65 5. Sweetwater (6-0) 76 7. Elizabethton (7-2) 47 19. Sequatchie County Class AAA 1. Soddy Daisy (3-0) 23 2. Powell (4-0) 38 4. Maryville (3-0) 55 9. Morristown East (5-0) 82 10. Ooltewah (2-0) 84 12. Cherokee 13. Dobyns Bennett 14. Knoxville Central 17. Chattanooga Central 18. McMinn County

Well Sir Lancelot and fellow IMACians, the lady chiefs ventured off into the land of the big 9 and took their lumps. I will reluctantly feed a report for the sake of other IMACians who may eventually venture into the same territory. Reluctant because the losses were packed with emotion and I certainly do not want to stoke any Hawkins County fires that are already burning red hot. My message to the IMAC would have to begin with a simple BEWARE! Our friends to the East appear to me to be much improved, and they are certainly motivated to try and correct what has been a couple of years of IMAC dominance. I think future IMAC/BIG 9 contests will be all about the match-ups (Pitching vs. Hitting). Don't under-estimate the pitching, I would place what we saw equivalent to or possibly a little stronger than we have faced so far in the IMAC and as you already know, Lance, that presents a particular problem for the lady chiefs. Coach Strickler has his team believing in themselves and playing well. They put the bat on the ball well and pressure you on the basepaths. Byington is the real deal. "Marbles" made a couple of mistakes and she/they made her pay for them. Coach Higgins was gifted with a couple of players he didn't have last year. In particular he has a lead-off slapper that is a VERY difficult out. Their pitching was strong enough to give the lady chiefs trouble this early in the season....not sure how they will hold up to the bats in Morristown. Beyond that, I would just say....don't venture East expecting anything other than a tight strike zone. And be careful how you react to it, because (although it had no impact on the games), retaliation can be a REAL problem. Looking forward to getting several games in at the NFS if the weather allows. Lady chiefs need several games over the weekend to iron out some kinks. BTW, any word on Jeff County/Science Hill...did they get to play?

Not to put words in our friend Lance's mouth, but my guess is that he was intending to refer to the Chief's 1 to 0 victory over Elizabethton, which by the way took 10 innings to accomplish.

Licking our wounds

MWTFAN, They guys from 1370 were planning on being there yesterday, so I assume they will be back over there tonight. We need a little detail from last night, What went down? Lance, Sounds good for District.

Sorry Lance....but there was a 1 to 0 shutout of Brentwood squeezed in between the losses in Murfreesboro. And I was beginning to believe you knew everything! How could you possibly have known about the infamous "Marbles Match of 1996". BTW.....Game with JC postponed...apparently the field is not playable.

National High School Softball Records http://www.nfhs.org/core/contentmanager/up...ns/softball.pdf Don't know that TN keeps them

OK, but I expect Lance to give his take. Cherokee scored their run in the top of the first. Hensley drew a walk to get on and eventually pulled a delay steal to take third. Do not recall how she moved to 2nd. Score came via squeeze. From there the chiefs got some hits but didn't threaten until top of 7. East got their first base runner in the bottom of 4. Bailey got a hit and took 2nd with bobble in the OF. Vannoy sacrificed her to 3rd. Horner ground ball to 3rd was mishandled and first run scored. Canter hit double down first base line. Ball may not have crossed the bag in fair territory, but it was a well hit ball and the call was made. Horner scored from first. I think East ended up with two more base runners but no other scoring threats. Top of 7 the bottom of the chief lineup did a good job of giving them a chance. Price (Freshman) got a 1 out infield single and took second on wild pitch. Brewer (Freshman) got her second hit of the game into CF. Runner got caught watching the ball flight a little and was unable to advance past third. With runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, Wilmoth got the K she needed and the groundout from the top of the lineup to secure the win. Chief observations: This team needs offensive production from the newcomers and last night was a good omen. I believe the newcomers generated 4 of the 6 hits they got off Wilmoth and showed some grit in the top of the 7th. Still a little shaky with some of the gloves and base running that I attribute to "nerves". Top of the lineup will have to be more productive. It will get better as the season progresses. Canes observations: Wilmoth did a great job and defense was solid all night. Top of the lineup put the ball in play well. If I am not mistaken, last year started off with a 2 to 1 Canes victory also. Your turn Lance.

3 would have done it, but it wasn't to be. Saw some good things from both teams. East played a clean game defensively and Cherokee got some offense from their newcomers late in the game that made it interesting, Chiefs were a little rusty in spots, but for that matter it looks like Lance may be a little rusty on his picks early in the season also. How did the rest of the IMAC fair?

Yea, it is pretty funny. I probably should have let it go on for a little while, it was entertaining. You guys just have too much fun with your softball over there in Erwin. Good luck with your season, get the potatoes and onions started, and we look forward to seeing you at the end of the month. Always an enjoyable tournament.

Try this and you should be able to figure it out: http://tennessee.coacht.com/boards/index.php?showuser=129572 You guys probably sit beside each other at most games. /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" /> /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" /> /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

I agree, Lance. The silence coming out of the west is almost deafening. It feels a little like an ambush is being formulated. Maybe there is another transfer in the mix somewhere or perhaps they are all focused on that tremendous basketball team they have over there this year. I for one am pulling for the lady trojan bball team to take it all.

Ah, Lance, Good to see you back. I was beginning to worry you weren't participating this year. Can't argue with your assessments of Lady Chiefs. That certainly is this group's reputation and you just don't replace Ewing, Price, Murrell, and Barnett defensively or in the lineup. I must point out, however, that during the tournament run last year, Davis, Mahan, Gilbert, Hensley and Hughes all had big offensive contributions and having tasted success, they seem to be even more thirsty to get back. Could be a tough start to the season for the Chiefs opening up at your Canes and following that with trips to DB, Grainger, Jeff County before coming home to face the Trojans. All this in eight days to start the season. Chief's X factor may be how much contribution they get in the lineup from the replacements. Certainly don't have the bumper crop of freshman that I understand are pushing an already very talented group over at East, but the chiefs do have a few very talented youngsters who could make an impact this year. Look for the Chiefs to make their move late. What components are missing at Jeff? I certainly expected them to be in the thick of it again this year with their talented pitching staff and most of their lineup returning. Maybe JC#1fan can ehlp us out with some Jeff County info.

Once again, I agree with you RR. Ryans and Maddox make for a pretty strong pair of twin towers for Cherokee the next two years. Maddox has a nice touch around the basket and really frees Ryans up to do more than she might otherwise. I hope these two girls work hard over the summer to take their game another step or two. If they do, Cherokee may be the turnaround story of the year next year.

Thanks PTS, I have to admit that I have been looking forward to seeing the girls get outside and start playing in the dirt. Just wish it was a little warmer. Hope to see 2 IMAC teams make it to Murfreesboro. Good Luck to all remaining IMAC teams.

Nice job by the Lady Chiefs tonight against a very talented and deep Lady Red. Thought the lady chiefs probably had their best effort since before Christmas and had the Lady Red in their sights until well into the 4th quarter. Without seeing the stats, the Lady Red had to have had one of their better shooting performances and their bench really made a big difference. RR.....I got my wish.....Thought the Lady Chiefs finished on a positive note. I agree with your opinion of Ryans. A real talent who late in the season began to show that in addition to her post play, she actually has pretty good range as well. She will be fun to watch over the next two years. I know that with only losing two seniors, the lady chiefs have a much stronger couple of years ahead of them.

PT is apparently a "glass half empty" kind of guy