The Lady Tigers of Ethel High School split a pair of fast-pitch softball games at their own tournament on Saturday, then split two more on Monday afternoon at Kosciusko to run their record to 3-3 on the season.
Ethel beat Leake Central 17-0 on Saturday, before falling to Kosciusko 14-1. EHS then bounced back to beat Enterprise-Lincoln 10-3 at Kosciusko on Monday, before falling to Union by the score of 8-2.
The Lady Tigers will be off for the rest of the week, before traveling to South Pontotoc on Tuesday and hosting Caledonia on Friday, Mar. 20, and then playing Winona and Kosciusko on Saturday, Mar. 21, at Kosciusko. Those games are at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Hodges picked up the win over Enterprise and took the loss against Union, but only gave up one earned run in 10.1 innings of work in the circle.
Breanna Blaine had two singles and three steals for Ethel in the win over Enterprise-Lincoln, while Shelby Schuster smacked two singles and Lizzy Rae Ellington had a double. Ellington also had a double in the loss to Union.
“Emily Mitchell is doing an excellent job behind the plate with Kambrie Hodges pitching the best I’ve seen,” Ethel head coach Tyler McKinley said. “Defensively we are making mental errors and it is snowballing on us. If we don’t drop the nervousness, this is going to be a long season. This team has the talent to go and play for South state again, but we need leadership.”
Mitchell had a pair of doubles on the day for the Lady Tigers on Saturday, while Ethel took advantage of a wild Leake Central pitching staff and made good use of the walks the Lady Gators issued.
“We just got beat by a team that could hit Saturday,” McKinley said of the loss to Kosciusko.
