BY JEFF CATE (TEAM FYN SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR)

The Silverdale Lady Seahawks softball program made it’s 2025 TSSAA Spring Fling appearance on Wednesday. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the start that coach Jackie Freelend and anyone wearing green and gold in Murfreesboro was looking for. After suffering the worst Spring Fling loss in program history with a 10-0 shutout to Donelson Christian Academy in game one, Silverdale recovered to win the next two games and give themselves a chance to win the school’s fourth state championship.

The first win of the day came against Christian Academy of Knoxville in a 8-0 shutout. CAK is a team that gave the Lady Seahawks a rare home loss when the Warriors got a 2-0 win in region tournament play back on May 6th. Since that loss, Silverdale outscored CAK in three matchups by a combined 29-7 margin and winning all three meetings. After only getting 2 total hits in the loss to DCA, the bats woke up as the Lady Seahawks had 13 hits to go along with Bita Cox’s three hit shutout from the bump. Cox and Heidi Bryant each went 3 for 4 from the plate with 3 combined runs batted in.

Game number three on the day for Silverdale featured a rematch from the 2024 Division II-Class A Championship game in a battle against University School of Jackson. After getting a quick 1-0 lead on a Gabby Hensley double in the first inning, USJ responded with four unanswered runs to take a 4-1 lead going into the top of the sixth inning. Bats waking up in key moments would be the story once again for the Lady Seahawks in the top half of the sixth inning as 5 runs would cross the plate and giving Silverdale a 6-4 lead, which would be the final tally on the scoreboard. After going a combined 1 of 10 from the plate in games one and two, Emry Masteron and Gabbie Hensley would go 5 of 8 against USJ.

“I can’t say enough about Emry and Gabbie and what they mean to this team”, Freelend said when talking about her two seniors. “They have been amazing leaders on and off the field the whole season. We talk a lot about softball being a game of failure, handling adversity, flushing it, being ready for the next play, and how important it is to pick each other up. Emry and Gabbie both do a great job of doing that.”

Silverdale will have to go through DCA twice if they want to win a third consecutive state softball championship. The first opportunity will be at 1:30pm eastern time on Thursday afternoon at Blue Raider Softball Field on MTSU’s campus. If the Lady Seahawks win the first game, the deciding game will take place at 6:30pm.

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