Ernie Banks famously said, “Let's play two.” Ethel softball twice did him one better, playing three games last Thursday and three more Monday.
The result was five wins and one loss.
The games began with three Region 5-1A victories, a doubleheader sweep of Leake County 16-0 and 18-0 and a 10-1 victory over French Camp.
That was followed by a long day Monday beginning with a 9 a.m. game with Choctaw Central at Nanih Waiya resulting in a 9-5 win. The team then got on the bus and rode to Eupora for two more games, a 9-6 loss to North Pontotoc and a 6-4 victory over Eupora.
“We have some tired girls,” coach Tyler McKinley said.
The easy wins over Leake County allowed McKinley to give significant diamond time to J.V. players. Both were three inning games.
Hadlee Fancher pitched the first game, allowing no hits, with seven strikeouts. Mya Barksdale, an eighth grader on the J.V. team, was in the circle for the second game, surrendering two hits with two strikeouts.
French Camp took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the first. “Offensively, we didn't do anything until the fourth,” McKinley said.
Lizzy Rae Ellington singled and Elana White followed with a two-run homer. “From that point we kind of took off.”
White had a single, double, homer and three RBIs. Jasmine Johnson, Brailyn Rone and Karli Fortenberry each singled and doubled. Brooke Mitchell went the distance, allowing three hits with three strikeouts.
“Defensively, we were really sound,” McKinley said. “That's a plus because in games we have lost we had multiple errors.”
Choctaw Central jumped out to a 3-0 lead with three in the second. Ethel scored once in the third, then took control with three-run rallies in the fourth and fifth.
White was three for four, with hits during both three-run rallies. Brooke Mitchell, Emily Mitchell and Meredith Mouldy each had a single and a double and Rone doubled.
Brooke Mitchell went the distance in the six-inning game, allowing five hits and one earned run, with five strikeouts.
The defense let the Lady Tigers down against North Pontotoc. “We dropped two balls in the outfield that should have been caught. That led to a big inning,” McKinley said. North Pontotoc took advantage of the miscues to score five runs in the second inning.
“We got in hole and had trouble coming back.”
Fortenberry had a single and a double, Rone two singles and Emily Mitchell doubled.
The Lady Tigers rebounded with the win over Eupora. White allowed six hits and two earned runs in seven innings. Fortenberry had two doubles, Fancher a single and a double.
The victory reversed a 7-4 loss to Eupora February 26.
“There were a lot of bright spots. We hit the ball really well,” McKinley said of Monday's games.
Rain wiped out the six games scheduled for the Ethel Tournament last Saturday, including Lady Tiger games with Houston and Nanih Waiya.
Ethel will resume region play next Tuesday at Sebastopol.
