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Morristown East outlasted Cocke County, 8-7, as winning pitcher Kylie Rader smacked a ball between the outfielders with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the eighth inning Monday night at King Park.

The teams swapped the lead four times with the Lady Red scoring in the top of the sixth to knot the score.

Rader come to the mound in the extra inning in relief of Ella Wampler and did not allow a baserunner while striking out two.

In the bottom of the frame, Hudson Cloninger led of with a single to right and was forced at second by Wampler. Jaycee Hamilton walked to put runners on first and second before losing hurler Hailee Hartsell struck out the next batter.

Zoe Shelley reached on an infield error to load the bases and Rader delivered a shot between the center and right fielders that would have cleared the bases if needed. But the game ended when the first runner touched the plate.

It was the sixth win against 11 losses for the Lady Hurricanes who collected 14 hits with five of them infield hits or bunts. The Lady Red fell to 10-3 on the season.

Wampler clouted a home run and single for East with Kaleah Davis and Shelley getting a double and single apiece while Rader and Adasia Davis both had two singles.

Cocke County finished with seven hits led by Paige Neithammer with two doubles and C. G. McNeely with a pair of singles. Jailah Ensley added a triple for the Lady Red.

Wampler pitched the first seven innings for the Lady ‘Canes. She gave up all seven hits, walked five and struck out six with all five walks coming in the first two innings.

The Lady Red grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Shakyra Reed and Ensley both walked and scored on Neithammer’s double.

East tied it in the second. Hamilton walked and Davis doubled. Rader’s single scored the first run and the second crossed on an error.

McNeely’s single gave the Lady Red the lead in the top of the third but East struck for three markers in the bottom of the frame. Wampler led off with a long, long round-tripper. Hamilton was hit by a pitch and Davis walked. Adasia Davis had an infield hit to score one run and the other scored on an error.

Ensley tripled and scored on another double by Neithammer in the fifth and scored when Kirsten Moore reached on an error. Moore scored on a throwing error to give the visitors a 6-5 lead.

However, the Lady ‘Canes regained the lead as Kaleah Davis singled, Shelley doubled and Adasia Davis had a base hit to left.

Reed singled with one out in the sixth and wound up scoring on a dropped fly ball to knot the score in the sixth.

East had runners on second and third in the bottom of the inning but couldn’t snap the tie and neither team could muster a run in the seventh before the Lady ‘Canes had the winning rally.

Both coaches said their team made too many errors in the game. “We had a lot of errors and those things happen but we also had some mental mistakes and that’s not supposed to happen,” said East’s Sydney Davis.

She added, “But I thought we did a good job of hitting the ball after the first inning. We had hits all the way through our lineup and that was important. The girls got behind but kept battling back.

“I thought Ella did a good job pitching but we didn’t play good defense behind her. Kylie came in there and pitched great in the eighth and then got the big hit when we really needed it.”

Cocke County’s Danny Hartsell said, “We had too many errors. We didn’t play clean softball.

“But that’s kind of what we expected,” he added. “We hadn’t played in 11 or 12 days because of spring break and a couple of teams cancelled on us.

“Credit to East for stepping up and playing us today,” he added. “I called and asked if they could play because we needed a game before we get into district play.”

Hartsell closed, “We just didn’t make the routine plays. We hit it good at times but we couldn’t string anything together when we needed it.

“I thought Hailee did a pretty good job,” he said. “We put a lot on her, she’s pitched every game this year. We didn’t play defense but it worked out that we got to play and that was important.”