Lady Maroon Tide and Lady Hornets drop game one in respective playoff series; PRC defeats West Jones on the road

Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 26, 2018

PICAYUNE — Picayune’s softball team lost 10-0 against West Harrison in game one of the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs Tuesday night.

Lady Hurricanes pitcher Sarah Cuevas held the Lady Maroon Tide to one hit and struck out 10 batters.

“West Harrison did an excellent job of making the routine plays and also of taking advantage of our errors,” Picayune Head Softball Coach Kristi Mitchell said. “This is a fast-paced game and in order for a team to have a chance to win, routine plays have to be made. Also, if you don’t put a run on the scoreboard, you don’t have a chance to win the game. And that’s something we didn’t do tonight.”

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West Harrison’s Layne Turan scored the first run of the game off an RBI from Brook Turan in the top of the second inning.

Later, in the fifth inning, a triple to right center field by Cuevas allowed Gracey Patton to reach home plate and extend West Harrison’s lead 2-0. Moments later, pinch-runner Tipper DeWitt scored for the Lady Hurricanes off of an error from Lady Tide’s baseman Cameron Carter. Before the end of the fifth inning, a hit to center left field by Sydney-Brooke Sims permitted teammates Abbey Fontan and Bethany Stiglet to add two more runs to the scoreboard for West Harrison. At the end of the top of the fifth inning, the Lady Hurricanes led 5-0.

In the next inning, West Harrison’s Kayleigh Necaise drove Brooke Turan home after a base hit. Afterwards, a pop-up fly by Abbey Fontan also allowed Turan to reach home plate and score the team’s seventh run of the game.

In the last inning of the game, Fontan, Sims and Layne Turan scored one run each to extend West Harrison’s lead 10-0.

For Picayune (6-20), Sarah Walker went 1-for-3 while at-bat and Morgan Dickerson and Kayla Moore saw playing time on the mound. Game two of the series took place Wednesday afternoon at West Harrison.

Poplarville softball: The Lady Hornets dropped game one of the first round series in the Class 4A state playoffs losing 6-3 against the Lady Cougars of Newton County Tuesday night.

Now, Poplarville (18-8) will travel to Newton County Thursday night, in hopes of winning game two and three in order to advance to the next round of the state playoffs.

Tuesday night, the Lady Hornets took a 3-0 lead in the first inning after Rakeya Travis, Manya Gilmore and Aislynn Andrews scored one run each.  Afterwards, Newton County went on to score one run in the second inning, two each in third and fifth and one in the sixth.

Hannah Blanchard and Gilmore each went 1-for-3 at the plate for Poplarville. They also had one RBI each.

Victoria Pertuit and Gracie Raby shared pitching duties for the Lady Hornets. Combined, they struck out six batters.

Pearl River Central softball: PRC’s softball team earned a come-from-behind 7-2 victory in game one against West Jones Tuesday night.

The Lady Mustangs led 2-0 after two innings of play but the Lady Devils (22-3) tied the game in the top of the fourth inning. Between the sixth and seventh inning, PRC scored five runs to seal the victory.

Maddi Glidewell batted 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, Madison Gower was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI and Jade Latham was 1-for-2. Taylor Kauzlarich also had two RBIs. On the mound, Latham pitched all seven innings for the Lady Devils, in which she allowed three hits and struck out 10 batters.

Game two of the series will take place Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at PRC.