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GRAY—Locked in a scoreless deadlock until the bottom of the fifth inning, host Daniel Boone exploded for all seven of its runs to advance to the Region One Championship game in a 7-0 triumph over Morristown East.

The Lady Blazers will play at Morristown West today at 5:30 p.m. for the region title with both teams advancing to sectional play on Saturday. Tonight’s winner hosts Heritage in the sectional while the loser plays at Farragut.

Daniel Boone will take a 29-7-2 record into tonight’s finals while East saw its season end with a 14-19 mark.

Neither team seriously threatened until the fifth when the Lady Blazes bunched six hits along with three errors by the Lady Hurricanes to account for its runs.

The Lady ‘Canes had only three base runners all day off winning hurler Kayliegh Quisenberry and one of those was erased on a double play. Ella Wampler had a single in the first and walked in the fourth and Keeley Shisler had a single in the sixth.

Senior Kylie Rader was the losing hurler but pitched much better than the final score would indicate. Rader blanked the potent Lady Blazers attack in five of the six innings and only two of the runs she gave up were earned. She walked only one and struck out two.

Boone amassed a dozen hits but three of those were infield rollers and two others were bunts.

Quisenberry issued just the lone walk to Wampler and struck out eight.

Quisenberry was also the leading hitter for the winners with three singles. Riley Croley had a double and single and Maci Masters added a pair of hits.

Daniel Boone coach Jeremy Jenkins said, “In talking to our girls before the game, I told them you have to pitch it and catch it and hit with runners on base.

“I thought we did a good job of doing that,” he added. “Kayleigh did a good job of filling the strike zone for us, we played great defense and we finally broke through in the fifth.

“We left way too many runners on base early on but Kylie is a really good pitcher,” Jenkins said. “We faced her many times and she’s always tough against us.”

Jenkins said, “I thought our girls did a good job in that fifth inning of taking advantage of some mistakes they had. This time of year, you have to find a way to win and advance and it gives us a chance tomorrow against West and Friday in the sectional.

“I’m really proud of our girls,” he closed.

East’s Sydney Davis knew what led to her team’s demise. “I said for us to win we had to do two things…not make errors and hit the softball and have baserunners.

“We didn’t accomplish either of those,” she said. “We made too many mistakes (five errors) against a good team and we definitely didn’t hit the ball. We just had that one inning beat us by making errors.

“I hate to see it end this way for our seniors. They’ve done a good job for us and we’re going to miss them.”

It was the final game for Rader, Shisler and Adasia Davis.

Wampler’s line shot to right with two out in the first gave East fans some early hope but the Lady ‘Canes didn’t have another runner until Wampler walked on a 3-1 pitch with one out in the fourth.

Freshman Jaycee Hamilton then smacked a wicked line drive to left field that appeared headed for extra bases but Anna Richardson made the catch and doubled Wampler off first.

Quisenberry had a single in the first for Boone and Ava Saul singled and Richardson reached on a throwing error in the second with one out. But Rader grabbed Lily Walters’ line drive up the middle and was able to double Richardson off first to end the threat.

With one out in the third, Croley doubled down the line in left and one out later Quisenberry got an infield hit but Rader got out of it with a fly ball to center.

Croley had an infield hit to lead off the fateful fifth. Audrey Moorhouse bunted for a hit and Quisenberry reached on a throwing error as the game’s first run scored. Masters singled in the second run and Kyleigh Bacon bunted for another hit to load the bases.

East had another error as a fly ball fell in the outfield before Walters knocked in two more with a hit. Pinch hitter Sadie Henson singled in a run and a throwing error allowed the seventh run to cross the plate.

That was way more than Quisenberry needed. She had retired six straight when Shisler’s opposite field single to left gave the Lady Hurricanes their final runner. She then set down the final four batters.