The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers, coming off a super 16-7 season last year, have picked up things in 2026 right where they left off in 2025. Despite some rainouts already this year, the Lady Panthers go into Tuesday’s game with White County with a competitive 1-1 slate.
SMHS rolled over York 16-1 in the season opener before coming up just short in a 4-3 decision against Roane County.
“Coming into the year, we were very excited about this group of kids,” said Stone coach Brittany Bilbrey. “The returning players and the new girls showed a lot of energy and effort to get better in the offseason.
“We’re happy with how we’ve opened the season. In the Roane County game, we had a couple of missed opportunities. Since then, our focus has been to find some consistency on offense and just continue to compete. We feel like if you’re able to do those two things, you’re always going to have opportunities to be successful.”
Stone opened the game with York on fire, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Lady Panthers tacked on 10 scores in the second inning and added one more in the bottom of the third to close the game with the final 16-1 margin.
“We had a girl get banged up in a play day this year, so our lineup in the opener looked a lot different than we imagined,” said Bilbrey. “However, we were very consistent offensively and we kept them on their heels.”
Khloe Kendrick led the way with two hits for Stone. She scored three runs and knocked in two. The Lady Panthers also got hits from Alexis Jackson, Cadence Cox, Eva Worsham, Hadley Holbrook and Karlie Overly.
Worsham took care of business in the circle for Stone. She allowed one run on one hit. Worsham struck out three and walked three.
“Eva was very solid for us,” Bilbrey said. “She definitely kept York off balance. Eva is very consistent and works hard to always improve. She has a great attitude and a good work ethic.”
Stone Memorial started the game with Roane County on a high note when Ashley Whittenburg lined a double to the outfield and came around to score on a hit later in the inning to make it 1-0.
Roane County answered with a run in the bottom of the first and added another one in the third inning to go up 2-1. Stone came back with two runs in the top of the fourth inning, but RCHS plated two more in the bottom of the fifth to post the final 4-3 margin.
“However, we had several innings where we had runners in scoring position,” Bilbrey said. “We just weren’t able to capitalize on that. We’ve been working on situational hitting, and trying to drive in runners. Getting better at that will be a big help.”
Stone had seven hits in the game. Kenzie Jackson and Sadie Niedert led the way with two each. Jackson also had a double, a triple and two runs batted in. Whittenburg, Worsham and Overly added one hit a piece.
Jackson was also stellar in the circle. She gave up four runs, three earned, on five hits. She struck out 10 and walked only two. The only blip on the screen for Jackson was a two-run homer to Sailor Presley, one of the top hitters in the state.
“I thought Kenzie did very well,” Bilbrey said. “She fought hard the entire game and pitched well. We were just not able to poke runs across when we needed to.”
Bilbrey said its been a good start to the season, but she knows there’s a lot of work to do.