The Wizardry of Oz

Alcoa ace lifts Lady Tornadoes into title game

Kaylea Osborne delivers the pitch in Alcoa’s winner’s bracket final win over Heritage on Friday.

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

The sound …

Kaylea Osborne says the speed on her fastball isn’t nearly as fast as your ears would have you believe.

While we beg to differ, for the third time this season it still proved plenty tough for Heritage to catch up with in a 4-0 Alcoa win in a District 5-AAA winner’s bracket final on Friday.

The win, coupled with a Heritage loser’s bracket triumph over Sequoyah on Monday, sets up a rematch between the Lady Tornadoes (35-2) and Lady Mountaineers (22-13) for the district championship this evening at Dawn Marsh Field.

First pitch is 6 p.m.

Osborne (14-0) lowered her earned run average to 0.60 in blanking Heritage for the third time in three meetings. Reaching 100 strikeouts for the second consecutive season in the contest, the UT-Martin signee struck out seven Lady Mountaineers en route.

“Everything was working,” Osborne said. “We just mixed up the pitches. The defense makes the most important plays at the important times.”

The Lady Tornado ace is also plenty modest, Alcoa coach Sarah Bailey said.

“She deserves all the good things said about her,” she said. “She trusts us and she’s been hitting her spots. Our pitching staff is really talented. We can pitch all of them.”

The Lady Tornadoes didn’t waste any time putting some run support behind Osborne. Tennessee signee Halle Bailey singled to lead off the Alcoa first with a high hopper over the bag at second. After moving to third on a sacrifice, a fly ball to right got her home one batter later.