Pleasant Home got out of a few jams and the Lady Eagles beat Florala 9-3 in their season opener Thursday night.

A much-improved Lady Wildcats softball team threatened with bases loaded in the second, fourth and fifth innings, but couldn’t get anything across behind Pleasant Home’s pitching and infield.

“I can’t take any credit for any of my coaching,” PHS coach Bradley Stephens said. “My girls, they’re very resilient. They play hard and they play through adversity.”

Throughout all of the adversity, Pleasant Home’s pitching never wavered as Ashley Copeland threw four innings and had five strikeouts to earn the win on the mound. Helena Weaver came in during the fifth inning, pitching PHS of the fifth-inning jam by retiring the last three batters in order.

Florala took a 2-1 lead after the top of the fourth inning by scoring on a couple of errors by PHS.

The Lady Eagles countered with a five-run bottom half of the frame that all stared with an Abigail Kelley single. Cassidy Godwin and Caitlin Jernigan got bunt-singles to then load the bases with one out.

Two-hole hitter Anna Bulger, who struck out twice already, hit a two-run single to score Kelley and Godwin to give PHS a 3-2 advantage.

Jernigan and Bulger later came around on a Raven Woods double and Pleasant Home sat comfortably with a 5-2 lead. Woods scored on an overthrow at the plate to make it 6-2 going into the fifth.

“It was almost kind of like a wake up call (for us),” Stephens said about the fourth inning. “The girls realized that Florala was here to play. This is a quality team. They rattled the cages and started hitting the ball.”

Florala’s Grace Cox hit an RBI single to score Samantha Hammac in the top of the fifth to cut the game to 6-3.

PHS added three runs in the bottom of the fifth on RBIs by Kelley, Jernigan and Bulger to close out the scoring threat.

With this victory, the Lady Eagles improve to 1-0 overall, and 1-0 in Class 1A, Area 3.

Florala’s Lily Ritzel struck out 10 batters and allowed 15 hits in six innings to take the loss.

Pleasant Home’s Brianna Dozier, who launched a double to left in the second inning, went 2-for-4 with two doubles. Jernigan went 2-for-3 with two singles; Bulger went 2-for-4; Weaver went 2-for-4; and Kelley and McGhee went 2-for-3 each.

Florala’s Lyndsee Edwards went 2-for-4 with two singles.

In junior varsity action, PHS won 9-2.

Pleasant Home is back in action on Monday at Enterprise.

Florala hosts PHS on Tuesday.