In the early spring of 2008, the Marshall County Tigerettes won their fourth state title to cap off an exciting winter sports season in Marshall County and it was quickly out to the diamonds and the courts to cover baseball, softball, tennis, and soccer.

Between myself and my partner Louis G. Scheuchenzuber, we ran around like two chickens with their heads cut off, covering the middle school and high games.

All three high school baseball and softball teams turned in winning records and were exciting to watch in a myriad of exciting finishes, record setting performances, and heart breaking, excruciating losses.

In this edition, the story will be about the dominance of girls’ sports in the 2008 spring campaign.

Barnes lights a fire

Let’s start with the Marshall County Tigerettes’ softball team that had a new head coach and a state title winning assistant coaching legend.

Heck, the field is named after Reese Hambrick, who had won the program’s only state title a few years prior.

Hambrick was ready to get in the background and he chose a former Tigerette standout Holly Barnes to take over the head coaching duties.

I had a chance to watch Hambrick coach the season before and I really admired his style and knowledge of the game and I also knew Barnes was a winner and had personal knowledge that she was also a great teacher of the sport.

What I didn’t know at the time was how fiery she was and how much I loved that.

It wasn’t a knock you down kind of fieriness, it was a light a fire under your butt style that every once in a while called for a 90 MPH flying helmet in the dugout or a look that could laser your eye out.

But Barnes knew all the ins and outs of the game and just wanted her players to know them too, without thinking about it and just play ball, letting their natural abilities take over.

After picking up two close wins to start the season, the Tigerettes hosted Columbia Central and with the game tied at 1-1, Barnes lit a fire under her squad that responded with a five-run third inning as catcher McKenna Moffett walked to lead off the inning and after a strikeout, speedster Brandie Jett beat out a slap single to put runners on first and second.

Stashia Osborne followed with a hard single to right to load the sacks before sophomore pitcher Mieke Wallace helped her own cause with a 6-3 fielder's choice RBI to give the Tigerettes a one run lead.

Another speedster, Addricka O'Neal blasted a shot over the right fielder's head to clear the sacks and make the score 4-1 before first baseman Lauren Anderson gave the Tigerettes a 5-1 lead with a hard shot to left.

Central came up with a pair of runs with two outs in the sixth when Barnes went to the bullpen and called in freshman Kayla Harmon, who got a pop-up for the third out and the Tigerettes made three consecutive solid defensive plays the following inning to seal the win.

MCHS won two consecutive road games at Loretto (6-2) and Cascade (6-1) to move to 5-0 on the season before losing four and tying one in a five-game road stretch that included three losses at a cold and rainy Chick-Fil-A Classic in Brentwood.

I’m not sure, but Barnes most likely had a bonfire moment as the Tigerettes bounced back with back-to-back Monday and Tuesday District 10-AA wins to cap off a stretch where they played seven games in eight days.

The final contest of that streak was a home game versus Hickman County that went into extra innings with junior right fielder Kwanza Pillow coming up with a walk off single that drove in pinch-runner Whitney Byrd in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Harmon turned in a tremendous performance in the circle for the Tigerettes to earn the first victory of her MCHS career. Harmon yielded just four hits and three walks in 10 innings of work to go along with seven strikeouts.

MCHS, meanwhile, played solid defense behind Harmon and committed only one error in the contest, while catcher McKenna Moffett gunned down three Lady Bulldog runners on the base paths.

After a much-needed six day rest, Columbia Central got their revenge in a 3-1 win before the Tigerettes won five out of the next six games, including a 10-1 rubber match win over Columbia in the final game of the Border Battle in Fayetteville.

Next up was Page, a thorn in the side of the Tigerettes.

Page came in to the April 14th contest at MCHS with a four game winning streak over the Tigerettes and made it five in a row via a 7-2 win.

The resilient Tigerettes showed their meddle with three straight wins by the scores of 2-1, 1-0, and 2-1 on Senior Night at Reese Hambrick Field, honoring Moffett and Anderson.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Jennifer Young was beaned by a pitch before O’Neal delivered a go-ahead triple down the left field line.

Wallace and the Tigerettes’ defense held and MCHS remained tied for first place in the district standings with Page, but the Lady Patriots held the all-important tiebreaker on a sweep of the regular season series over Marshall County.

On the final day of the regular season, The Tigerettes fell 1-0 at Hickman County to hand the title to Page, but trounced the Lady Bulldogs 8-0 two days later at home in the opening round of the district tournament.

MCHS broke out of scoring slump with a seven-run fifth inning, banging out seven hits in the frame as 11 batters came to the plate with the big blow coming from O'Neal, who drilled a bases loaded no out double to left that drove home Moffett and Jett.

With the bases re-loaded, Kaci Ezell knocked it two more with a smash through the box, Pillow followed with an RBI single, and Moffett finished the break-out with a single that drove in two.

A trip to Page for round two turned in to another excruciating loss as the Tigerettes fell 3-2 in extra innings.

A 10-0 run-rule win over Lewis County set up a daunting task for MCHS, who had to win two games at Page to advance to the region tournament, but the Lady Patriots finished off the Tigerettes with a 3-1 win and increased the winning streak over Marshall County to seven games.

After that loss, Barnes never lost again to Page as the Tigerettes had had enough, winning the next 12 games in a row over the Lady Patriots by a combined score of 91-11. Ouch!!

Lady Bulldogs make the big jump

The 2007 Cornersville Lady Bulldogs worked hard to get where they were and it began to pay off the following season as they gained confidence with every game.

The Lady Dawgs were loaded with talent, especially in the circle where they had four very capable pitchers in Summer and Savannah Cole, Chrissy Worth, and freshman Haley Fagan.

Worth, along with Tori Wolaver, Jessica King, and Sarah Davis were the only seniors on the squad that opened up the 2008 campaign with a pair of lopsided blowout wins over Santa Fe (19-0) and Huntland (15-0) before splitting a pair of games at the Ardmore, Alabama tournament.

Cornersville won back-to-back road games at Shelbyville and Culleoka before run-ruling Moore County 11-0. It was Cornersville’s 11th win in a row over the Raiderettes and the Bulldogs had outscored its District 11-A opponents 59-0 to start the campaign.

Cornersville travelled to the Chick-Fil-A Classic at Brentwood where they beat the defending state tournament runnerup and intra-county rival Forrest 5-1.

Savannah Cole went the distance in the circle, Sarah King belted a grand slam homerun, Wolaver went 3-for-3, and catcher Amanda Griggs knocked in the other run for the Lady Bulldogs.

Although the Lady Bulldogs lost the next three games in a row at the tournament, they had gained a ton of confidence in the win over Forrest.

They came back with a 15-1 win over Moore County before suffering their first district loss of the season in a 6-2 setback against Richland.

The loss lit a fire under the Lady Dawgs, who won three district games in a row by a combined score of 38-1.

After a sloppy 8-1 loss to Shelbyville, Cornersville won eight out of the next ten games to end the regular season with a 17-8 record, including an undefeated district slate.

The final triumph in the winning streak was the big one as they beat Columbia Academy 4-1 to claim the regular season district title for the second season in a row.

Worth, who had torn her ACL seven months earlier playing on the soccer team, picked up the win in the circle for the Lady Dawgs.

Cornersville blasted Moore County for the third time in the season in the opening round of the district tournament before coming up with a pair of close wins at Richland over Columbia Academy (4-1) and the host Lady Raiders (4-2) to claim the District 11-A Tournament crown for the first time in 11 years.

The tournament title buoyed the Lady Bulldogs, who were gaining some serious postseason momentum that started with an 8-1 win over Collinwood in a first round Region 6-A tournament game.

Savannah Cole struck out 13 Lady Trojans to pick up her 12th win of the season and freshman Lindsey Dalton drilled a two-run dinger.

Two days later they crushed Summertown by the same 8-1 score to win the region title as Summer Cole was dominant in the circle for the win and Lori Beth Adams came up with the big offensive blow via a three-run dinger.

The win earned the Lady Bulldogs a home state sectional game versus East Robertson, who lost 2-1 at Forrest in the Region 5-A title tilt.

The contest will go down as a classic as the two teams entered the bottom of the seventh inning tied at 2-2.

The Lady Bulldogs pulled out the win when Worth scored from second on a groundball by pinch hitter Fagan, following a throwing error.

After seeing the errant throw to first, Worth had visions of Murfreesboro dancing through her head while traveling the final 120 feet to home plate. "I was thinking I'm going home and I'm going to state," Worth said at the time.

With the victory, the Lady Bulldogs earned their first state tournament berth since 1997 and the third in the program's history. "It's the next step that we thought was coming last season, but it's come a year later," Cornersville coach Spencer Mitchell said.

The Lady Bulldogs were off to the Spring Fling four days later where they opened with an impressive 7-0 shutout win over North Greene in the first round.

They banged out 15 hits in the contest while Savannah Cole turned in a monster performance in the circle, giving up just one hit and striking out 17 Huskies.

Summer Cole, Adams, and Sarah King all had three hits in the game with Cole blasting a two-run homer in the first inning.

Cornersville had a tough second round match-up as they took on the defending back-to-back state champions Trinity Christian Academy (TCA).

University of Tennessee signee Ivy Renfroe put the brakes on the Cornersville offense, giving up just a lone seventh inning hit to Dalton in an easy 6-1 win.

Undaunted, the Lady Bulldogs came back with one of the biggest wins in the program’s history when Dalton drilled a two-out, two-run walk off homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Huntingdon 2-0.

They smoked Friendship Christian School 13-1 in the next round as they banged out 17 hits in the game with Summer Cole going a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with a homerun, a triple and four RBIs, and picking up the win in the circle.

In the loser’s bracket final, the Lady Bulldogs faced a Forrest team they had beaten earlier in the season.

The Lady Rockets had just lost to TCA 2-0 in the winner’s bracket final and they scored first versus the Lady Bulldogs via an unearned run in the bottom of the third inning that was created by speed from Cornersville transfer Chelsea Johnson, who went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two stolen bases versus her former teammates.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Johnson struck again as she reached on a slap infield single, stole second, and scored on a Brinda Elmore double to center field to make it 2-0.

The Lady Bulldogs had come too far to give up now and they dug down deep, tying the game in the top of the sixth inning.

Jessica Dillard got the rally started with a one-out pinch hit double before Worth traded places with her to make it 2-1.

With two outs, Sarah King came up huge with an RBI single up the middle and the game was back to even Steven.

Neither team scored in its next at bat and the game went to the bottom of the seventh where Amanda Daughrity led off with a bunt single.

Daughrity took off for second on the next pitch and the throw to get her sailed to the center field fence and the speedy Forrest right fielder scored standing up for the victory.

It was an excruciating loss for the Lady Bulldogs, but they had proved they had belonged with the Class A elite.

Over the next four seasons, the Lady Bulldogs posted an 84-37 overall record with three regular season district titles, two district tournament titles, one region title, a road win over East Robertson in a sub-state game, and trips to the state tournament in 2009 and 2011.

Lady Rockets give TCA public school lesson

In 2007, the Forrest Lady Rockets were a dominating force in Class A softball, putting up a 30-10 record, but fell one win short of the state title at the hands of Trinity Christian Academy (TCA).

In 2008, they had one thing on their minds and that was getting back to the Spring Fling for the third season in a row and beat TCA or anybody else that stood in their way.

They were like penned up dogs, starting the campaign with four straight wins by a combined score of 46-3.

They went 1-1 at the Commando Classic in Hendersonville and followed that up with a 6-1 win at Spring Hill.

Their annual road trip to Florida was plagued by rain but they did get revenge on a Rutherford squad that had beat them in 2007 as they posted a 10-0 shutout before returning home winning three straight by a combined score of 38-0.

They went 3-1 at the Chick-Fil-A Classic in Brentwood, including a stinging 5-1 loss to intra-county rival Cornersville, but they had nice wins over Page (18-0), Henry County, Kentucky (6-0) and perennial Class 3A powerhouse Bolton (3-1).

After that they were nearly unbeatable, winning 11 more games in a row, including six shutout wins and a sweep of the Border Battle Classic with quality wins over Oakland and Riverdale.

They faltered a bit at the Coffee County Classic where they posted a 2-3 mark.

On April 29, the sixth-ranked Lady Rockets travelled to Wartrace for the final game of the regular season and put some heavy icing on the cake with a big 14-0 win over the Cascade.

Haley Mathis provided the large traveling crowd from Chapel Hill some extra added excitement with an electrifying inside the park homer in the fourth inning and Amanda Daughrity and Heather James knocked balls out of the park.

Shelby Stinnett got the win in the circle with a one-hitter and stretched her streak to two years of not allowed a run versus Cascade.

The victory was also the 20th in row over the orange-black clad Lady Champions as Forrest clinched the district title and finished the regular season with an undefeated district record and entered the postseason with a 26-6 overall mark and earned a bye in the first round of the District 9-A Tournament at The Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill.

They swept the tournament away, winning three games by a combined score of 26-0.

In the first round of the Region 5-A Tournament, also at home, Forrest fell behind 1-0 to the Houston County Lady Irish before scoring seven unanswered runs to advance to the region title game and a rematch with East Robertson, who had beaten Forrest 7-3 in Cross Plains in the 2007 title tilt.

For the second time in three years, Brianda Elmore came through in dramatic fashion to help the Forrest Lady Rockets re-claim the Region 5A crown with a hard fought 2-1 victory in Chapel Hill.

The Forrest slugger slammed a game-winning bottom-of-the-seventh hit in 2006 to beat the Lady Indians and her fifth-inning RBI double was the eventual game winner in 2008.

"We came in with a vengeance tonight", Elmore said after the game. "We wanted to get them back from last year."

Forrest entertained Summertown in a Class A sectional game after the Lady Eagles lost 8-1 in the District 12-A title game.

The Lady Rockets made easy work of Summertown with a 7-1 win as they took control early, scoring three first-inning runs and then rode the wave of Shelby Stinnett's one-hitter to punch their ticket to Murfreesboro for the third straight year and five out of the last seven seasons.

Forrest was also runnerup in 2002.

The Lady Rockets faced one of the best pitchers in the state in the opening round versus Huntingdon.

Brooke Thomas and Stinnett squared off in a classic pitching duel that went to extra innings in a scoreless draw before Forrest got a big break in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Daughrity set the stage for the win with a leadoff single to center that was misplayed, allowing her to reach second. Thomas reared back for a strikeout, sending Haley Mathis to the plate and the Forrest center fielder advanced Daughrity to third with a 1-3 fielder's choice.

Elmore was pitched around for a walk and on the next pitch, with Stinnett at the plate, Thomas threw a low fastball that got past the catcher. The ball ricocheted off a backstop pole and caromed off toward the dugout. Daughrity immediately saw the play and raced down the line and scored as the Forrest crowd went crazy in the stands.

The Lady Rockets beat Friendship Christian School 5-2 in round two in another close game that was tied 2-2 in the seventh inning when the Lady Rockets came up with three runs on RBIs by Elmore, Stinnett, and Bussell.

Stinnett struck out the side in order in the bottom of the inning to seal the win and fulfill the one thing the Lady Rockets wanted, a rematch with TCA.

It did not turn out well as Forrest only had five hits in the game and committed three errors in the 2-0 loss in the winner’s bracket final.

Instead of pouting, the Lady Rockets eked out a crucial win over Cornersville and now had to beat TCA twice to claim their first state championship.

It was reported that the TCA crowd had checked out of their hotels prior to the first game on Friday night and that was a big mistake as the Lady Rockets pounded the Lady Lions 10-4 to set up one game for all the marbles on Saturday.

Forrest scored four runs in the fourth inning and six times in the fifth as Stinnett was masterful in the circle, giving up one earned run on eight hits while striking out four and walking two.

TCA checked back in and on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. the two teams met again on Forrest graduation day back in Chapel Hill.

The Lady Lions took a 4-0 first inning lead, but the never give up and never give in mantra from Forrest coach Becky Cheatham was resounding in the dugout and the Lady Rockets responded with two runs in the third on RBIs by Stinnett and Heather James, cutting the TCA lead in half.

TCA left five runners on base over their next four at bats and the game went to the seventh inning with Forrest still trailing by a 4-2 score.

Fate and determination kicked in for Forrest as Daughrity stared the winning rally by reaching on an error.

After a strikeout for the first out, Daughrity advanced to second on a wild pitch and Kalah Mathis singled to shortstop as Daughrity went to third.

Elmore reached on an error that scored Daughrity before Stinnett moved both runners up with a groundout.

James stepped in the box and stepped up with the biggest hit of her career, drilling a two-run single that put Forrest in front 5-4.

TCA got its first two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh as things began to get tense, but things were going to different this time as Brittany Yates drilled a shot down the third base line that was snagged by Rachel Curtis, who tagged the bag and threw to first for an amazing double play.

Haley Elliot came to the plate for TCA with three hits in three at bats already in the game, but flied out to Mathis in centerfield and the Lady Rockets were champions for the first time.

They would go on to win two more state titles in 2015 and 2019.

Tiger tennis girls go for doubles repeat

In 2007, Tori Richardson and Lyssa Wiles shocked the Tennessee prep tennis world when they captured the program’s first state championship and in 2008 they came back strong without Richardson, who graduated.

The junior Wiles teamed up with classmate Jenna Branaman and the duo was dominating the entire season.

Wiles and Branaman defeated longtime Summertown rivals Anna Hinton and Sara Hinton in a tough 7-6, 11-9, 5-7, 6-4 match to claim the District 11-AA title and one week later the duo started in 0-5 first set hole versus Mt. Pleasant in the Region 6A/AA Tournament final before staging a remarkable comeback to claim a (6-4, 1-6, 7-6) (7-2) tiebreaker win to return to the Spring Fling.

The entire girls’ team played well as they won the district tournament in Murfreesboro and Rachel Wolfe claimed the district singles' title.

Wolfe, Branaman, Wiles, Kelsi Richardson, Allison Adcock, Allyson Van Hooser, Drew Killian, Kennedy, Josh Lewis and Drew Huitt all made the District 11A/AA Tournament squad.

The girls squad won the region title, but fell to Ezell-Harding 4-2 in the state sectional round.

Wiles and Branaman’s state tournament appearance lasted just one match as they drew the David Lipscomb team in the first round that they had won the title over the previous season.

Ellen Ross, who was half of the 2007 combo teamed up with Brooke Simmons to beat the MCHS duo 6-1, 6-3 in straight sets.