by Rusty Ellis
The Upperman Lady Bees used a two-run sixth inning on Wednesday to take down Macon County 3-2 and advance to the District 7/AAA Championship game.
Both teams got on the board early in the first inning, as Upperman took a brief 1-0 lead on an Abigail Johnson RBI single off Macon County ace Ellie Coley.
The Tigerettes wasted no time responding in their half of the first, as Macy Meador blasted the first pitch she saw from Reece Kimmell over the left-field fence for a game-tying solo home run.
This is where both pitchers settled in, as Coley and Kimmell took turns tossing up zeros on the scoreboard until UHS finally took the lead back in the sixth inning.
Kimmell led off the inning with a double, and she later scored on an RBI single from Johnson. Head coach Dustin Williams then turned to Ava Latta off the bench, and she delivered with an RBI single to score the third Lady Bee run of the game.
Macon was unable to get to Kimmell until they got a single run in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough as Upperman clinched their fourth trip to the district championship game in five years with a 3-2 victory.
“You’re always excited to make the district championship,” Williams said. “Tonight, I feel like we did a really good job of taking care of business and focusing on where our feet are…that’s a really good team over there that does a lot of things right. I was just really proud of our girls for making the big plays and making those timely plays to get us the advantage.”
Williams talks a lot about staying ready for when your number is called, and Latta came through for him when he trust her in a big moment to drive in a run. Williams says she’s always been ready, this was just the perfect time to call her number.
“Ava started about the first half of the season for us and she kind of went through a bit mentally,” Williams said. “She didn’t pout or get down on herself, she just kept working…she didn’t get mad at anyone else, she had a lot of self-accountability. We were talking about putting her in that spot an inning before it happened, what a huge moment for her to come through for both our team and herself.”
Not only do the Lady Bees take on the winner of Macon-Sparta for the district championship on Thursday night, they’ve also clinched a spot in the region tournament. It’s an exciting time for the program, as Williams says a lot of people probably counted them out earlier in the season.
“For these juniors and seniors, this is all they’ve ever known,” Williams said. “We’ve played for three in a row, and now four of the last five, so that’s just a testament to how hard these girls work and how much they trust the process…nobody expected this in March when we were playing the way we were. The girls didn’t get down on themselves, they just kept working and now they’re playing for a district championship.”
