Red Bank Softball Beats the Odds to Reach Spring Fling

Murfreesboro, TN-(WDEF-TV) After a 15 year drought, Red Bank softball finally made the trip back to Spring Fling in Murfreesboro this year. They did it all with the cards stacked against them. News 12’s Angela Moryan is up there with the Lady Lions incredible story.

Angie: The Red Bank Lions did the unthinkable this year — they made it to the state tournament. It’s not so much the fact that this is the Lions’ first Spring Fling trip since 2005. It’s more how they managed to get here.

Said short stop Zoe Helms: “It’s been a roller coaster.”

Red Bank softball had one goal this year — make it to state — a pretty lofty goal considering the Lions didn’t have enough players to fill the team at the start of the season.

Said head coach Mandi Munn: “You look at our lineup and we’re the walking dead. We have so many injuries. Everyone’s in braces and bandaged up and boots and everything. But they’ve made it to the top four. They are one of the final four in the state in their division and that’s just amazing to us.”

And they did it all with just one pitcher.

Said pitcher Bailee Phillips: “I think it honestly shocked a lot of people especially around the area because we just haven’t been in 15 years, and with me being the only pitcher, nobody was thinking, ‘Oh they’re going to make it to state with just one pitcher.’ I think it even shocked us.”

Said Munn: “It’s so difficult to do what they have done with one pitcher. … With just one pitcher, you think it falls on her, but it really takes the entire team to pick up the slack if she has an off game, which luckily she’s been throwing really really well.”

Said Helms: “We never quit. The grit and the hard work is just always there.”

The Lions won two games before getting knocked out by Gibbs Thursday. However, the wins were just a bonus.

Said Munn: “Knowing where we started with not enough to play, all the obstacles they’ve had to overcome with being quarantined and all the injuries we’ve had, for them to make it, to reach their goal that they set for themselves, to make it here, and then take it one game at a time and actually win a few, that’s the icing on the cake.”