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DANDRIDGE—Morristown East roared from behind with a six-run fourth inning Thursday night and went on to a 10-3 softball victory over host Jefferson County.

The Lady Hurricanes collected 14 hits in notching their fifth win against 11 losses. East is now 3-1 in District Two 4-A play while the Lady Patriots sank to 4-11 overall and 1-4 in the district.

Winning hurler Ella Wampler banged out four hits and Zoe Shelley added three to lead the Lady ‘Canes. Hudson Cloninger and Hailey Hall chipped in two safeties apiece for East.

Wampler relieved starter Kylie Rader with nobody out in the first inning and allowed only one run in picking up the mound decision over Tia Stewart. She gave up four hits, walked two and struck out six in the victory.

Stewart didn’t pitch badly but didn’t receive a lot of support from her defense as the Lady Patriots had five errors on the day.

East coach Sydney Davis said, “I don’t have anything but good things to say tonight. We got down in the first inning but didn’t let that beat us. I think we scored in four different innings and that’s one of my biggest goals for us to be consistent scoring.

“We had a great inning in the fourth tonight and I thought we hit the ball all the way through the lineup,” Davis remarked.

She continued, “Ella did a great job pitching for us. She came in there and got out of the first without giving up any more runs and that was huge for us. Then she gave them just one run after that.

“This was a big district win for us. It keeps us one game behind West and we still have a home game with them left.”

East got a run in the top of the first to open the scoring. Cloninger had an infield hit and stole second base. She went to third on a single by Wampler and scored as Kale Davis grounded out.

However, the lead didn’t last long as Rader had trouble finding the strike zone in the bottom of the frame. She walked the first four batters and hit the next as the Lady Patriots grabbed a 2-1 lead.

Wampler came on in relief and got the first batter to bounce back to the mound and that produced a force out at the plate. The next hitter lined out to Hall at second and Wampler got another bounce back to the mound to escape the mess.

East tied it in the third when Wampler doubled to lead off and scored on a hit by Davis.

But the home team came right back with their final run when Ave Garay banged a double and scored on a hit by Ainsley Martin.

However, East collected five hits, all after two outs in its next at bat. After Stewart got the first two batters on pop outs, Cloninger had an infield hit and Wampler doubled her in to make it 3-3. Jaycee Hamilton reached on an error and Davis walked to load the bases.

Shelley singled in what proved to be the winning run before Jaelyn Valentine followed with a two-run single. Before the inning was over a dropped fly ball in the outfield let two more runners cross the plate and it was suddenly 8-3.

That was more than Wampler needed as she blanked the Lady Patriots the rest of the way.

The Lady ‘Canes added a couple of insurance runs in the fifth when Wampler had another hit and Davis reached on an error. Shelley then delivered another two-run single to close the scoring.

Jefferson County got base hits off the bats of McKaylee Hobby and Garay with two outs in the sixth but Wampler struck out the next batter to get out of trouble.