GRAY DEYOSports Writer

Junior Lady Wildcat softball player Amaya Sharp set a new school record at the conclusion of this season. She had the most wins of any Tullahoma pitcher in a single season with 18.

In what has been a significant rebuild over the past four seasons for the Lady Wildcats softball program, Sharp has shown to be a key part of the team’s road back to being one of the best teams in the district. Tullahoma achieved a 20-win season for the first time in over nine years and finished second or better in the district for the first time since the 2017-2018 season.

“Amaya has pitched a ton of games over the last three years and has gotten better and better each season. Her velocity and location had continued to improve each year, and she is an incredible competitor,” said the head coach of Tullahoma softball, Gary Barfield.

“It does not surprise me at all that she broke the wins record, and I expect her to have an amazing senior year next year. Amaya is also a great leader and holds every player accountable.”

Sharp’s standout performances

Here are three games that stuck out this year for the junior Lady Wildcat.

Tullahoma started their season losing four of their first five games. They went on to win 11 straight, where Sharp picked up 10 of her 18 wins. In two of these games, she gave hitters no chance of making their mark on the game.

On March 17 against Huntland High School, Sharp allowed just three hits and had six strikeouts in a shortened three-inning game, thus giving her a 66% strikeout rate. The Lady Wildcats ended up winning this contest 18-1.

On April 3 against Franklin County, Sharp pitched a shutout. Over six innings, she allowed two hits and had five strikeouts. Tullahoma won this Matchup 15-0.  Sharp showed during this stretch of games that even when given a heavy workload, Tullahoma can still count on her to put together solid performances.

Arguably, Sharp’s best performance of the year came in the district playoffs against Giles County. It was a win-or-go-home situation. The junior shaped together a seven-inning, one-run-allowed performance. Here she picked up her 18th win of the year, with the ‘Cats winning the game 7-1.

With another offseason in the works, Sharp will likely stay on the trend of improving that coach Barfield mentioned. In her freshman year, she had an ERA of 8.6 This year, she has an ERA of 4.67.

A sure-to-be-exciting senior season for Sharp is soon ahead.