By Michael Lindsay
The Upperman Lady Bees are region champions following Thursday night’s 5-4 victory at DeKalb County in the Region 4-3A title game.
“We’ve been grinding for a decade to win one of these,” said Upperman coach Dustin Williams. “We’ve had some really good teams, but this team broke through and got it done. I can’t say enough about our players about how locked in they were all night.”
DeKalb County defeated Upperman twice last week in the District 7-3A tournament with both victories coming via run rule.
“This team can be as good as they want to be if they execute,” said Williams. “Tonight we came in super locked in executed in front of a huge crowd. I can be very challenging and hard to play for; in the moment, this is no harder than what they go through in practice.”
Upperman pitcher Reese Kimmel struck out 9 batters while allowing 6 hits and 4 walks in the victory while going 1-2 with a double and an RBI.
The Lady Bees jumped out to a 3-0 lead via a run in the tops of the second, third and fourth innings. DeKalb County answered with a Bri Murphy grounder to score Bryna Pelham to cut Upperman’s lead to 3-1.
Upperman extended their lead in the top of the sixth inning as singles by Kloee Garrett and Addison McElhaney drove in a run each to push the Bees’ lead to 5-1.
DeKalb County pulled within two runs in the bottom of the sixth as a Kora Kilgore fly ball resulted in an error and a run scored followed by a Murphy sacrifice bunt to score Pelham, making the score 5-3 entering the seventh.
The Tigerettes got two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh before a Pelham single scored Rylee Wilbur, pulling DeKalb County within one run at 5-4 with the winning run at first base. Kimmel worked out of the jam as she struck out the final Tigerette batter to preserve Upperman’s 5-4 region championship victory.
Up next for both teams is the Class 3A sectional round. DeKalb County is scheduled to travel to Soddy Daisy at 4:30 central on Friday, weather permitting, while Upperman is set to host Heritage on Saturday at 4 p.m.
