KODAK — Elle Proffitt hurled a no-hitter and she and her teammates banged out 15 hits Tuesday night as top-seeded Cocke County clinched a region tournament berth by clouting Knox Carter, 10-0, in five innings.

The victory put the Lady Red, now 31-7, in the District Three 3A finals Thursday. They will play the winner of Carter and Seymour who played on Wednesday in an elimination game with the winner getting the district’s other region berth.

Seymour knocked out host Northview Academy on Tuesday, 6-4.

The Lady Hornets had just one base runner with that coming when Jenna Wilson reached on an infield error to start the third inning.

Already down by 4-0, Carter sacrificed her to second but Proffitt struck out the next two to preserve the shutout.

The Lady Red scored in every inning. Brooklyn Strange belted a long home run to right field, her first round-tripper of the season after a hit by Meredith Grooms in the bottom of the first.

Bentleigh Morris doubled and scored on a hit by Jaylee Lane in the second with Lane scoring on a throwing error to make it 4-0.

Chloe Niethammer smacked her third homer of the year after a base hit by Strange to highlight a four-run burst in the third inning.

Ensley and C. G. McNealy also had run-scoring hits as the margin mounted to 8-0.

In the fourth, Proffitt laced a double to left and Hailee Hartsell had a base hit to bring her across.

The Lady Red needed one run to end the game in the fifth and Morris and Lane had hits to open the frame. Ensley sacrificed the runners into scoring position before loosing pitcher Taylor Armstrong retired the next batter.

However Grooms came through with a walkoff single to score Morris.

Proffitt struck out 10 in notching her 12th mound victory of the season.

For the second straight game, every player in the batting order had at least one hit. McNealy, Grooms, Strange, Hartsell, Morris and Lane all had two safeties each.

Lady Red coach Danny Hartsell was happy with the way hit team played. “We came out hitting the ball in the first inning, “We moved Brooklyn to the four spot a couple of weeks back because she’s been hitting so well. That’s her first home run of the season. She had come close a couple of times and I’m just tickled to death to see that kid do that.

“Chloe works hard for us behind the plate all the time and I was glad to see her hit another homer.

“Elle threw a gem. She threw strikes all night and we gave them a runner on an error but she worked past it and shut them down.”

He closed, “If we hit it like that from the top to the bottom, we can be a dangerous team. I was happy with our effort.

“This one put us in the region but we can’t let up and need to come back out here on Thursday and win the championship to keep our momentum going.”