Brashear Over Knox County in Class 1 District 9 First Round
North Shelby and Cairo also advance and LaPlata had a 1st round bye.
When Brashear and Knox County met a week ago, Knox County came away with a 9-inning victory. With the rematch in districts, everyone expected it to be a close game and it was. Brashear scored in the first when Christina Scudder hit a 2 out triple and Hailee Kelsey drove her in with a double. Kelsey then took 3rd on a wild pitch and came home when she enticed a pickoff throw that went in the dirt. Brashear got another run in the 2nd when Shanea Rusk singled. Kayla Hettinger then grounded into an out at 1st and Knox tried to pick off Rusk as she rounded 2nd. The throw got away and Rusk sprinted home for Brashear's 3rd run. Knox County did some nice base running of their own in the 3rd. When a dropped 3rd strike required a throw to 1st to record the out, DeAnn Bushnell timed her sprint from 3rd perfectly and beat the 1st to home return throw for a score. The rest of the game was all defense and pitching as the final score remained 3-1. Christina Scudder picked up the win fanning 13. Freshman pitcher Brittany Miller turned in a fine performance in taking the loss striking out 12. Brashear improves to 12-8 and will face top seeded LaPlata Thursday at 5:00 in semi-final action.
In other first round action, Cairo eliminated Paris 12-3 and North Shelby defeated Atlanta 10-0. Cairo and North Shelby will face off at 6:30 Thursday.