Photo by Luke Morey, GCDW | North Knox's Mattilynn Ashley is fired up after a play in Tuesday night's sectional semifinal against Mitchell.

BY TRAVIS DAVID

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VERNE — For the second straight night, the North Knox softball team made some noise in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Unfortunately, Tuesday night’s deficit was too much for the Lady Warriors to overcome.

But it wasn’t due to a lack of effort.

North Knox pushed across four runs in the final inning in a heart-breaking 10-8 loss to Mitchell in Tuesday’s first semifinal of the Class 2A South Knox Sectional.

Trailing by six, Ally Crist led off the Warriors’ seventh with a single before Malli Lyons and Mattilynn Ashley worked back-to-back walks, loading the bases with no outs. 

Javen Miller, Monday night’s hero, lined a single to right field scoring Crist while Lyons also raced home on the throw back to the infield. 

Graci LeRoy followed with an RBI single scoring Ashley and Miller scored on the throw.

But the rally came to an abrupt end after a runner was caught stealing followed by a groundout and strikeout.

With the tough loss, North Knox wrapped up the season with a 13-9 record.

The Lady Warriors grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Crist raced home on a dropped-third strike.

The Bluejackets put North Knox in catch-up mode after plating five runs in the top of the third inning with four hits and a hit batter.

After a sacrifice fly by Ashley in the third, the Warriors pulled to within 5-4 with a pair of runs in the fourth. Delani Pryor scored on a passed ball while Ellie Allen scored on a throwing error on the same play.

But Mitchell answered back with three straight hits to open the fifth. The third knock gave the Bluejackets a 6-4 lead before a sacrifice fly made it 7-4.

A single by Crist and a double by Miller gave the Warriors two runners in scoring position in the home half of the frame, but a strikeout ended the threat. 

Mitchell added three big insurance runs in the sixth, which proved to be the difference.

As a team, the Bluejackets pounded out 13 hits — five more than North Knox.

Crist and Miller paced the Warriors’ 8-hit attack with a pair of knocks apiece.

Pryor, Lyons and Baylee McClure all added singles in the loss.

Mitchell advances to the sectional championship game against No. 5 ranked Sullivan.

The Lady Arrows won Tuesday night’s second semi-final matchup, 9-2 over Linton-Stockton.