E.A. Sports Today

Lady Cubs win thriller

Alexandria scores two in 10th after Lincoln forces extra innings with back-to-back homers in the seventh; Faith wins close one

By East Alabama Sports Today

LINCOLN – It was the kind of game one would expect to find in the playoffs.

Two area rivals were battling it out and it was so intense they had to play more – after one staged a furious seventh-inning rally to force extra innings. It was a game that literally wasn’t decided until the last play.

Alexandria pushed across two runs in the top of the 10th inning and shortstop Catelyn Howell snared a hot smash in the bottom of the inning with two runners in scoring position to turn the final out and preserve the Lady Cubs’ crucial 6-4 win over Lincoln.

The win left the teams tied in the area standings. Both teams have yet to complete their area series with St. Clair County, but since they split their own head-to-head meeting, the No. 1 seed and tournament host likely will be decided by a coin flip.

All of the scoring came late in the game.

The Lady Bears tied it with four runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back homers by Brook Ferguson (a three-run shot) and eighth-grader Justice Green, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in their order.

Mattie Wade got Alexandria’s winning rally going with a one-out single and she made it to second when the outfield misplayed the ball. She scored the go-ahead run on Madison Snow’s double and Snow scored when the Lady Bears made an error on Summer Watts’ two-out slow roller.

Wade went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Snow and Alyssa Carrizales each had two hits.

Lincoln had runners at second and third with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Howell broke the Lady Bears’ heart when she snared a hot shot by Kamryn Beasley and threw over for the final out.

“We did what we had to do to get back in it, we just couldn’t get a timely few hits,” Lincoln coach Rush Rutledge said.

Lauren O’Dell pitched all 10 innings to get the win for Alexandria. She struck out 13. The four runs she allowed in the seventh all were unearned.

Faith Christian 2, Jefferson Christian 1: Presley Whitten took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Cornelia Simpson homered as the Lady Lions (5-14) avenged a lopsided loss earlier in the season while extending their winning streak to a season-best three games.

Simpson’s homer produced the first run of the game. Logan Boyd, Andrea Davis and Hannah Reynolds all had two hits for Faith. Whitten allowed only one hit and struck out seven.

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