Byrd's strong outing leads Unicoi County past Adamsville in Class 2A

MURFREESBORO — As Tuesday afternoon got warmer, Unicoi County pitcher Lela Byrd got stronger in the circle. The Lady Blue Devil right-hander pitched a complete-game shutout to lead Unicoi County past Adamsville to open Class 2A action at Spring Fling, 2-0. "It's always good to come in here playing and get a win up front," Lady Blue Devils head coach Abby Hensley said. "I think Game 1 is always a big game for anybody that comes to the state tournament. Even though we have one game under our belts, we still have more to go, so we can't quit now." Byrd got into some early trouble for Unicoi County (35-3), walking two of the first three batters she faced. But, she worked out of early trouble, inducing a groundout and a strikeout to finish the first inning. From the second to the fifth inning, she retired 12 of the 15 Lady Cardinal (22-19-1) batters she faced, not allowing a hit to that point. "She had a little bit of a free base issue going on, more than we would like," Hensley said. "Even with that, our defense played great behind her when they had to make plays and she never got down on herself and kept throwing the ball. That's all we could ask for." The Lady Devils offense was able to scratch across just enough run support for Byrd in the third inning. With two outs in the inning, Aaliyah Engle roped a run-scoring double into left center to plate the first run of the day. Two batters later, Emmi Linkous drove Engle home on a base hit. "We had some clutch hits when we needed them," Hensley said. "At that point, I had a talk with Aaliyah and dad had a talk with Emmi, just making sure they weren't in their heads that inning and that produced runs." Byrd then ran into major trouble in the sixth inning. A single, an error, and a hit batter loaded the bases to open the sixth inning, giving Adamsville its best scoring chance of the day. However, the standout pitcher induced a lineout-throwout double play off the bat of Hayley Sims to give herself a bit of breathing room. She then ended the inning with a strikeout, keeping the Lady Cardinals off the board. "That's a big jam to get out of," said the Lady Blue Devils coach. "At that point, it's just seeing what we can do to get out of it. She did her job. She pitched what she had to. Got the double play and we bounced right back out." Byrd allowed just the one hit and three walks to go with 10 strikeouts. At the plate, she also had a pair of hits. Up Next Unicoi County will be back in action Wednesday morning against Community.