Straughn edges Lady Bulldogs 7-6 in area action

Straughn rallied with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and went on to beat Andalusia 7-6 in area softball action Wednesday night at SHS.

Four of the Lady Tigers’ seven runs were scored on errors, which plagued the Lady Bulldogs.

Andalusia entered the contest after a 3-0 area loss to Ashford on Tuesday night. Straughn was coming off of an 8-0 loss to Elba.

The Lady Bulldogs fall to 0-2 in Class 4A, Area 3, while SHS improves to 1-2 in area matchups.

Straughn trailed 6-3 going into its hitting half of the sixth inning.

Jacie Williamson got things going at the start by reaching on a throwing error from short stop Emily Terry, and then quickly advanced to second on a passed ball.

Lady Tigers’ right fielder Morgan Waite then reached on a single and stole second, while Williamson scored on an error.

With two outs and two on, Straughn’s Paige Taylor, who went 2-for-4, knocked a two-run single to score Waite and Katelyn Kinsaul. Kinsaul reached on an error.

Taylor sealed the win by breaking the 6-6 tie by scoring on an error from third-baseman Abbie Young.

“That was fun,” SHS coach Trent Taylor said. “I was sitting over here in the last inning, and thinking, ‘Hey, if they score those runs, come back and beat us, I would still be proud of them.’

“Last night, not taking anything from Elba, we didn’t play very well,” he said. “I thought we were real aggressive at the plate (Wednesday night). Defensively, we made some plays today.”

Andalusia surged to its 6-3 lead after scoring two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI triple by Andi Hughes and a sac fly by Young; and added two runs in the sixth with back-to-back RBI singles from Jessica Park and Hughes.

AHS had runners in perfect scoring position in the top of the seventh with one out, but Taylor caught the runner from first going to second on a tag-out and then threw Terry out going to first base.

“Errors, defensively, killed us tonight,” AHS coach Teresa Herring said. “We hit the ball well.We moved the runners. We put them in scoring position. We even laid down the bunt.”

The Lady Tigers scored two runs in the fourth inning on errors and tied the game up at 1-1 in the second on an RBI single from Kristen Peavey.

Andalusia took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Sam Greene to score Young.

Andalusia took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a stolen base from Maggie Lambert.

In addition to Taylor, Molly Stewart and Payton Mitchell had two hits each to lead SHS.

Park went 3-for-4 to lead AHS.

Mitchell struck out three and allowed three earned runs in 7.0 innings for the win on the mound.

Lambert allowed three earned runs on two hits and stuck out one in the loss.