For the fifth time this season, The DCHS Tigerettes gave Macon County a 15-2 thrashing Wednesday afternoon to take the regional championship.
In the battle to reach the region finals, the Tigerettes first had to face Sequatchie County at Danny Bond Field in Smithville. DeKalb laid a 9-0 beating down on Sequatchie.
The game remained scoreless until DeKalb put up a run in the third inning, but when Joni Robinson led off by ripping one over the center field fence in the fourth the floodgates opened. The Tigerettes enjoyed a 5-0 advantage by the end of the inning. DeKalb added two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Winning pitcher Kayley Caplinger sat eleven Sequatchie County batters down, allowing only four hits in the shutout victory. Sequatchie committed three errors in the contest, while DeKalb recorded one.
Megan Walker and Emme Colwell hit two singles each for the Tigerettes, and Lexie Bates, Kayley Caplinger, Kenzie France, Allison Maynard, Joni Robinson, Myranda Bailiff, and Hanah Panter all singled. Joni Robinson contributed a homerun.
Then Macon County came back for more. Macon had battled their way back through regional competition after being defeated 7-0 by the Tigerettes in the district championship game the previous week, only to be pounded on the Tigerettes home turf Wednesday afternoon.
Macon looked strong in the first half-inning of the game, scoring two runs, but leaving a couple of runners stranded when Kayley Caplinger finally got heated up and pitched her way out of the predicament. The Tigerettes tightened up and shut Macon down for the rest of the game.
The girls from DeKalb were just getting started, however. The Tigerettes came out of the first inning with a 4-2 lead, scored another in the second, and added one in the third, and four more runs came across in the fourth. DeKalb added two more runs in the fifth, bringing the game to 11-2, one run away from being ended by the 10-run mercy rule, when Myranda Bailiff jacked one over the left field fence with the bases loaded. The grand slam provided a decisive end to the game.
Winning pitcher Kayley Caplinger gave up two runs on five hits, while DeKalb scored fifteen runs on sixteen hits, committing three errors.
Kenzie France, Joni Robinson, and Hanah Panter smacked a double each, and Allison Maynard hit two doubles. Hanah Panter, Lexie Bates, Allison Maynard, and Joni Robinson put in two singles each, and Kayley Caplinger and Hanah Panter singled. Myranda Bailiff blasted the aforementioned grand slam homer.
The Tigerettes ran into a little trouble in the sub-state game, however. Sweetwater ended DeKalb’s season when they held the Tigerettes off for a 3-1 win Friday night.
At the last step to a state tourney berth, DeKalb’s hopes were dashed when Sweetwater pitcher Addie Lowe struck out 11 Tigerettes and allowed only one run on one hit in the contest. The six errors posted by DeKalb did not help their cause.
Sweetwater scored three runs on eight hits against Kayley Caplinger, who also sat down eleven batters. Sweetwater scored a run in the second, fifth, and sixth innings, committing only two errors, while the Tigerettes put a lone runner across the plate in the third.
The Tigerettes only hit was a double from the bat of freshman Kenzie France.
DeKalb ends the season with a 29-6 record.
