Rhea Edges Walker Valley 2-1 For District Championship
Cleveland, TN -- 5/9/23
On the campus of Bradley Central High School, Rhea County faced off against Walker Valley for the second time in the district tournament and for the second time, Rhea wins a one run contest to claim the 4A District 5 championship. This completed a fantastic 4-game winning streak in the tournament that included wins over McMinn, Walker Valley twice and Cleveland by a combined 26-10 margin. These were all very good teams and from a team that entered the tournament with a 13-16 record. That did not mean that this was not a good team, but that they had played a very tough schedule and got hot at the right time. Coach Mathis is hoping that the good play continues into region play and beyond. With the win, the Lady Eagles earned the right to host Warren County in the opening game of the Region Tournament on Monday, May 15th at 7 pm.
In the championship game, Rhea County was visitor on the scoreboard and they scored the first run in 4th inning when Lakyn Lockhart doubled and scored when Walker tried to throw out Lockhart on a ground ball by Olivia Day. In the top of 5th, Shaver, who had two hits on the evening, one being a double, scored the second Lady Eagle run. Walker came back with their only run of the night when Woodall walked, and came around to 3rd on a Presswood hit and scored on a sacrifice-fly by Nicholes.
That was the scoring for the night. There were other opportunities, but none materialized and Reel finished with the complete game 4 hitter for the win with 8 strikeouts and only 1 walk. Davis took the loss for the Lady Mustangs, giving up 2 runs in 3 innings.
After the game, Coach Mathis said, "They(Rhea County) knew all year, how capable they are. Out of the 15 losses we had, 10 of those were to top teams in the state. Hats off to them guys. All that matters is being ready when it counts. My other ace Allie Shaver was coming back from injury, and unavailable. Chelsea did a great job."
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| RCHS | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| WVHS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Batting:
| Player | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
| L. Lockhart(CF) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| O. Day(SS) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B. Roberts(C) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Reel(P) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A. Shaver(2B) | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| N. Poole(1B) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| H. Kosek | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| A. Ingle(RF) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| G. Messer(RF) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| H. Johnston | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 25 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
Pitching:
| RHEA | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
| REEL | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Totals | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Walker Valley | |||||||
| Davis | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Presswood | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Totals | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |