AHS girls beat Opp 4-3 Tuesday night in rival contest

Andalusia strung some hits together and played decent defense, and went on to beat Opp 4-3 on Tuesday night at OHS.

The Lady Bulldogs were led by winning pitcher Maggie Lambert, who pitched 6.2 innings and allowed one run on six hits and struck out four batters.

“That felt good all the way around,” AHS coach Teresa Herring said. “That was some of the best defense we played all year, as far as until the very end.

“That’s a great hitting ball team,” she said.

Andalusia found itself in trouble twice during the game, once in the third inning with bases loaded and the second time came in the bottom of the seventh, also with two on and two outs.

“That goes back to the defense,” Herring said. “They’re starting to work together. They’re starting to believe in each other.”

But, it was the Lady Bulldogs’ hits that helped pull them through.

Emily Terry helped AHS get on board in the second inning with an RBI single to score Abbie Young, who reached on one of Opp’s three errors of the game.

In the third inning, the Lady Bulldogs took at 3-0 lead when Lambert hit an RBI single, and Young hit an RBI double to score Jessica Park and courtesy runner Aiteria Green. Park and Lambert reached on singles.

“We were able to string some hits together, and that makes all the difference in the world,” Herring said.

Opp had bases loaded with two outs after an error on Andalusia’s catcher, but Lambert forced a fly out at shortstop to end the inning and scoring threat by the Lady Bobcats.

Andalusia led 4-0 in the fifth inning when Park scored on a passed ball. Park reached on an error, and reached third base on a passed ball, after Lambert was walked with two outs.

With two outs on the board, Opp’s Tori Reisnour and Laiken Free reached on errors, and Savannah Gerber reached on a single to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh.

Opp center-fielder Octavia Thompson then got hit-by-a-pitch to score Reisnour.

Then, Beth Anne Spurlin hit a two-run shot to score Free and Gerber to cut the game to one run.

However, Andalusia caught the Lady Bobcats on a pop up to end the game with Young on the mound for the final out to get the save.

“Andalusia played a great game,” OHS coach Jimmy Reeves said. “They made every play. They just whooped us. The did a good job.”

Terry went 2-for-3 with one RBI to lead AHS.

Gerber went 3-for-4; and Spurlin went 1-for-4 with two RBIs to lead OHS.

Andalusia will host Straughn in area action tomorrow, and Opp visits Geneva.

Herring said she keeps encouraging her team to “peak” at the right time.

“You want to peak at the end,” she said. “That (win) was huge for us. We’re going to be real excited going into Thursday when we play Straughn. That’s our next to last area game, so we’re real excited to see them at home.”