Fictional football quarterback Shane Falco, from the movie “The Replacements”, summed up Brentwood High School's final softball game of the year, an 11-1 loss to Dickson County in the District 11-AAA tournament, in one quick quote: “You're playing and you think everything is going fine. Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can't move ... you can't breathe ... Like quicksand.” For the Lady Bruins, that was the story of the second inning. Kate Peters opened with a double leading 12 batters that reached safely before Emily Cockrill fanned Lillie Procter with the bases loaded. In between the Lady Cougars plated seven runs on six hits, three errors, two walks and one hit batter. “Seven runs in one inning,” Brentwood head coach Erica Powell considered after the game. “Sometimes when it rains it pours. You make an error or two and sometimes it is just hard to come back from.” Down 8-0 to open the sixth inning, Brentwood tried to mount a charge. Indy Cockrill crushed a triple down the left field line and scored when sister Emily nailed a ball that hit the fence in center field on the fly for a double. But a pair of hard-hit line drives by Tabbi Daech and Hannah Smith were grabbed on outstanding defensive plays to end the threat. A walk, a double by Annabelle Elllis and an error cleared the bases twice for Dickson County in the bottom of the sixth, giving the Lady Cougars a 10-1 lead. That’s when Peters smashed a towering shot over the left field fence to end the contest. “Only one team gets to end the season with a win,” Powell said. “The two teams left are the top two teams and they both deserve to be there. I hope one of them goes to the state and represents our district.” Brentwood entered the tourney as the third seed but fell to sixth seed Spring Hill 13-2 in the first round Monday. “We had a really rough game Monday night and we had a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting Tuesday and decided we were going to different," Powell said. "And we did. We came out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and sent everybody else home except the teams above us. I’m happy with what our kids did this week. They came out and won three huge games. After the opening loss, Brentwood eliminated Centennial 6-3, Page 3-2 and Franklin 4-3 in a trio of close, hotly-contested games. Senior Emily Cockrill was in the circle for every game, something that impressed her coach. “I’m really proud of her," Powell said. "She pitched five seven-inning games and kept us in all of them. Even when we made errors behind her, she kept going back up there, putting us in a position to win, getting ground balls. "And she’s going to college not to pitch – she was doing that just for us. Every other team had some relief, but Emily pitched every game and didn’t complain once. Just super gutsy.” Powell loses four seniors. Both Emily and Indy Cockrill, four-year players for the Lady Bruins take their talents to Belmont next year. Morgan Salmon, a transfer from California who was named the District 11-AAA Offensive Player of the Year and who broke five school records, will head home to Santa Clara University. First-year senior Kate Workman, a long-time force on the Brentwood girls basketball team, also graduates. Salmon’s records include single season batting average (.600+), home runs in a season (15), most RBI in a season, longest hitting streak (16 games) and longest consecutive hitting streak (14 at bats over four games).

Source:  Williamson Herald