Parsons homers as Lady Rangers win Regional championship
Published 11:59 pm Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Star Photo/C.Y. Peters Unaka's first baseman stretches to snag the ball to record the out as a North Greene runner hustles up the line.
Star Photo/C.Y. Peters Unaka's Kylie Blevins races to beat out the throw to first base.
Star Photo/C.Y. Peters Unaka first base coach John Ramsey talks things over with Alana Parsons during the rwgional title game at Unaka.
Star Photo/C.Y. Peters A Unaka baserunner slides safely by the attempted tag of a North Greene infielder.
Star Photo/C.Y. Peters The Unaka Lady Rangers captured the 2022 Region 1 Class A Championship with a thrilling nine inning walk-off win over North Greene by a 2-1 score.
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For the fifth time this year Coach Kenneth Chambers and the Lady Rangers have beaten North Greene – this time for the Regional crown and a home sectional game on Friday.
It was a pitching duel and many players made some great plays. Unaka center fielder Kylie Blevins made the catch of the year and may have saved the game for the Rangers.
The North Greene catcher never missed a ball and threw runners out at second.
The biggest play of the night came in the bottom of the ninth with Sadie Shoun at second. Unaka was trailing 1-0 and North Greene’s Coach Weems called time-out with first base open and Unaka Alana Parson at-bat.
Everyone knew he would walk Parson because just last week she sent a hit over the scoreboard to the Happy Valley baseball field in the Districts.
Weens returned to the dugout and lets his ace pitcher throw to Parsons.
During the time out Coach Chambers told Parsons “if they pitch to you, hammer it.” On the first pitch, Parsons ended the game with a shot over the left-field fence for the 2-1 win.
“I had a job to do for my team,” said Parsons. “If we would have lost, it would have been my last game here and I wasn’t ready for that.”
North Greene could not get on the scoreboard until the top of the ninth even though they had several chances to score in the game. When
the lead-off batter Kessie Antonelli hit a triple and would score on a long fly ball by Gaby, it wasn’t looking good for the Lady Rangers but they were at the top of their lineup with their number two, three, and four batters coming up.
Great players make great plays and it was time for the Lady Rangers to step up one more time. Shoun reached base via an error on the
second baseman who bobbled a hard-hit ball.
Pitcher Trinity Bowers then laid down a nice bunt to get Shoun in scoring position at second.
Parson’s last at-bat in the seventh inning saw her foul off 11 pitches as the count went to three and two before she popped out.
With the game on the line in the ninth, Parsons stepped up her game and hit the two-run homer.
Bowers, who stuck out 14 on Monday night, was given the test to beat North Greene. She showed why she is one of the top pitchers in the
league. In crucial times, Bowers kept her composure by throwing strikes, never hitting a batter, and never giving up a walk.
“I knew we were going to win it – I believed in our team,” said Bowers.
The Husky’s left six players on base in scoring position. Unaka had four hits led by Parsons who went 2-for-4. Kendall Bare and Blevins also
had hits for Unaka.
North Greene made five errors in the game while Unaka had none.
