Lady Rockets rout Nolensville for 21st consecutive district title

Anthony S. Puca Sports Editor
Posted 5/13/21

The defending state champion Forrest Lady Rockets (24-3-1) meant business Thursday night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill, jumping on Nolensville early and coasting to a 9-2 win in the District 12-AA championship game to claim their 21st consecutive district title and 32nd since 1986.

“Coming in to this game, we felt pretty confident that we were ready to go,” Forrest coach Shelby Lightfoot said.

The Lady Rockets have won 18 region titles and will try for number 19 when they host the loser of tonight’s District 11-AA Tournament championship game between Waverly (25-5) and Camden (9-6) in the Region 6-AA Tournament opener on Monday with Nolensville (18-10) travelling to the winner’s home field.

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Lady Rockets rout Nolensville for 21st consecutive district title

Posted

The defending state champion Forrest Lady Rockets (24-3-1) meant business Thursday night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill, jumping on Nolensville early and coasting to a 9-2 win in the District 12-AA championship game to claim their 21st consecutive district title and 32nd since 1986.

“Coming in to this game, we felt pretty confident that we were ready to go,” Forrest coach Shelby Lightfoot said.

The Lady Rockets have won 18 region titles and will try for number 19 when they host the loser of tonight’s District 11-AA Tournament championship game between Waverly (25-5) and Camden (9-6) in the Region 6-AA Tournament opener on Monday with Nolensville (18-10) travelling to the winner’s home field.

Forrest sports a 15-game winning streak and as long as they keep winning, they will play at home until the Spring Fling in Murfreesboro, beginning on Tuesday, May 25.

“It’s a huge advantage when you have your fans, your family, your community and even those boys out in left field, that’s support, that’s momentum, that’s comfortability,” Lightfoot said. “I mean you really want to have that, that’s the reason why you really want to win and it’s a good incentive to keep winning and to play at home, not travel, not get out of your routine, so that is going to be really big for us.”

Forrest has also won 12 consecutive state sectional games they have played in and are 13-1 in those pressure packed contests since 2002 with their only loss coming in 2004 when they fell 5-1 to FRA.

The Lady Rockets have made 17 state tournament appearances with four runner-up finishes, capturing state titles in 2008, 2015, and 2019.

On Thursday at Forrest, Nolensville had its hands tied as they made a huge mistake for the second game in a row, pitching to Laura Mealer in a pressure spot as the MTSU signee delivered a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to light the fuse.

Senior first baseman Kaetlyn Helmick, who went a perfect 3-for-3 in the contest, drilled the first of her two RBI doubles in the game to make it 3-0.

The second time Mealer came up, Nolensville finally figured it out and walked her, but the Forrest coaches made a subtle change to the lineup, moving the hot-hitting Ashley Milligan to the cleanup spot behind Mealer for protection.

Abby Ferguson got a sacrifice bunt down and two batters later, Helmick drilled her second RBI double to make it 4-0.

Nolensville came up with an unearned run in the top of the fourth inning and in the home half of the stanza, it was lights out, party over.

Briley Burnham began the rally with a lead off base on balls and after a couple of pop-outs, Karley Daughrity singled to center field.

Nolensville was not going to let Mealer go downtown again as they walked her to load the bases for Milligan, who crushed a towering grand slam home run over the left field fence to make it an 8-1 rout.

“We moved Ashley up to the four-hole because we thought teams may start figuring out Laura and depending on the situation, they may not throw to her,” Lightfoot said. “That became the case and Ashley showing out behind her was big and we needed that going forward.”

“Ashley likes being in the four-hole and I think that also gave her some confidence as well.”

The Lady Knights made it 8-2 on an RBI single by Paige Dickinson in the top of the fifth inning, but the Lady Rockets got it right back in the home half of the inning when Carli Warner delivered a two-out pinch-hit RBI single.

Milligan was also in complete control in the circle, finishing off Nolensville 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh, including her 11th and 12th strikeouts in the game. Milligan gave up just six hits and walked zero Nolensville batters.

“The more you play a team, they are going to get a few hits on you,” Lightfoot said. “That first run we gave up was on us, again I will say this over and over, in huge ballgames we can’t give them anything, if they earn they earn it, but we can’t give away free runs.”

“Ashley’s performance on the mound was one of her best, especially finishing the way she did, she shut it down in the last inning which I was proud of.”

The Lady Rockets did not get to defend its title last season due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Lightfoot talked about what is was like for the team to miss an entire season and come back as a totally different squad then the one that claimed the 2019 crown.

“What we missed was this, just the excitement from the girls when you win, even the ones who did win missed that,” Lightfoot said. “Some of these girls haven’t experienced that, some of these girls lost a year, even Milligan on the mound, this was big year for her because she lost getting to do that last year.”

“So I love it for them, I love it that they get to experience it and even our young girls, whether they are on the field or not, everybody has a role and everybody has a crucial role, I always tell our bench that they are just as important, so it was also big for them, it was big for everybody.”

Nolensville 000 110 0-2 6 0

Forrest 301 410 X-9 11 2

Nolensville: Avery Patton 2-for-3, Macy Dupree 1-for-4, Paige Dickinson 1-for-3, Rylan Smith 1-for-3, Emily Gable 1-for-3.

RS: Patton, Alexis Hall.

2B: Patton.

RBI: Gable, Paige Dickinson.

ROE: Hall, Lauren Ryan.

Team LOB: 5

LP: Rylan Smith (3.2IP, 8H, 8R, 8ER, 3K, 3BB).

Relief: Avery Patton (2.1IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0K, 0BB).

Forrest: Katelyn Helmick 3-for-3, Karley Daughrity 2-for-4, Ashley Milligan 2-for-4, Jenna Blanton 1-for-4, Laura Mealer 1-for-2, Briley Burnham 1-for-2, Carli Warner 1-for-1.

BB: Mealer 2, Burnham.

2B: Helmick 2, Burnham.

HR: Mealer, Milligan.

Grand slam: Milligan.

RBI: Milligan 4, Helmick 2, Mealer 2, Warner.

SAC: Abby Ferguson, Milligan.

FC: Blanton, Mealer.

SB: Blanton, Addi Bunty, Burnham, Mealer.

Team LOB: 5

Fielding

E: Maggie Daughrity, Mealer.

WP: Ashely Milligan (7IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 12K, 0BB).