Photo: Southside’s Bailey Houston connects for a hit during the Lady Panthers’ 1-0 loss to Scottsboro in the Class 5A East Regional softball tournament on May 11 in Albertville. (Courtesy of Average Joe’s Sports Talk)
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
A pair of tough one-run losses hastened the Southside High softball team’s departure from this week’s Class 5A East Regional Tournament.
After opening with a 10-0 shutout in five innings over Lincoln on Thursday, May 11, the Lady Panthers were clipped by Scottsboro, 1-0, in nine innings. Dropped into Thursday’s playback bracket, Southside was edged by Sardis, 7-6.
Against the Lady Lions, the game was tied 6-6 entering the top of the seventh. Ava Ramsey’s two-out double put the winning run on base, but Sardis pitcher Maddie Harris induced a groundout to end the threat.
The Lady Lions loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning when Jayda Lacks singled, Jalyn Hannah reached on an error and Val Owens walked. With two outs, Vada Willmore was hit by a pitch to force in the winning run.
Sardis put together a five-run inning in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a three-run triple by Harris. The Lady Panthers quickly responded in the top of the second when Bailey Houston tripled home Jasie Brooks, Jovi Marble and Peyton Burrell.
Maddie Griffith drove in Houston.
The score remained 5-4 in favor of the Lady Lions until the top of the sixth, when Houston’s base hit plated Calee Morgan and Brooks for a one-run Southside lead.
But Willmore’s leadoff triple in the bottom of the inning to set up her score off Baylor Gilmer’s sacrifice fly and tie the game at 6-6.
Houston went 2-for-3 with five RBI and a run scored, while Ramsey went 2-for-4.
Lacks went 2-for-3, while Hannah and Willmore each had a hit, an RBI and a run scored.
Harris went the full seven innings to earn the win, scattering seven hits and five walks while striking out five. Lexi Darnell pitched 6.1 innings for Southside, allowing three hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.
Darnell was sharp against Lincoln, limiting the Lady Golden Bears to three hits and no walks while fanning six. The Lady Panthers scored three runs in the first, four in the second, one in the third and two in the fifth to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule.
Ramsey had a two-run home run and two runs scored; Marble went 2-for3 with two runs scored and Griffith had a hit, two RBI and a run scored.
Darnell was even better against Scottsboro. In nine innings, she scattered five hits and one walk with two strikeouts. She sent the Lady Wildcats down in order in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Kadey Barbe went 2-for-4 with a double, while Houston, Griffith and Brooks each had a hit.