RCHS headed back to state tournament after win over Ohatchee
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Hannah Parmer was all smiles as she rounded third on her home run trot in the first inning of RCHS’s 19-4 win over Ohatchee in the East Regional in Albertville Thursday.
The first two home runs that RCHS sophomore catcher Hannah Parmer hit in the Class 3A North Regional in Albertville, she had to exert maximum effort on inside-the-park trips around the bases.
The third home run Parmer hit may as well have been a victory lap.
Parmer’s three-run shot over the fence in left field staked RCHS to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first and set the tone for a 19-4 state-tournament-berth clinching win over Ohatchee Thursday. And just for good measure she added one more inside-the-park homer later in the game to put the finishing touches on a jaw-dropping two-day performance.
The Lady Tigers are back in the state tournament for the second straight season, one year after they made the first appearance in school history.
It was right around this time last year that Parmer’s bat took the leap from good to elite. The pitchers at this year’s regional had no way to stop her.
In four games in the tournament Parmer went 10-for-14 with four home runs and (no-it’s-not-a-typo) 21 RBI, capped by Thursday’s 2-homer, 8-RBI showing against Ohatchee.
She was the most unstoppable part of a team-wide two-day offensive outburst that had just one hiccup in a 3-2 loss to Hanceville earlier in the day Thursday.
That loss allowed Hanceville earn Qualifier One status and left RCHS needing one more win to get in.
And boy did the Lady Tigers get it.
In all the Lady Tigers scored 44 runs in four games and went 3-1 in the tournament to punch their ticket to state next week in Oxford.
The avalanche in Thursday’s finale started early with Parmer’s bomb and never let up.
The Lady Tigers scored at least four runs in every inning of the 4-inning, run-rule win thanks to 18 hits in the game.
Khloe Yates went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two runs driven in, and Bryer Thompson added three hits and four runs scored. Both of those players are in the eighth grade.
All those runs scored couldn’t overshadow the work that Abi Waters logged in the circle. She pitched in all four games and was invaluable in the finale Thursday as she steadied things in the field after Ohatchee loaded the bases to start the game. Two of those inherited runners scored, but Waters settled in after that as the RCHS lead swelled.
In all Waters threw 17.2 innings and allowed 20 hits and just five earned runs while striking out 13.
RCHS nearly earned their state tournament spot a game earlier as they fell 3-2 to Hanceville earlier in the day Thursday. The Lady Tigers had runners at second and third with one out but could not get the tying run across, sending Hanceville to the tournament as Qualifier One.
RCHS is in as Qualifier Two from the East Regional and will take on South Regional Qualifier One Wicksburg in their state tournament opener Thursday at 9 a.m. at Choccolocco Park in Oxford.
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