PREP UPDATE: St. James softball erupts to beat ACA; MA tops BTW
Emily Needham is congratulated after her home run in St. James’ 16-2 win over ACA on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
Mark Hall had a simple message to his St. James softball team entering the fourth inning of Tuesday’s area game with Alabama Christian at Denise Ainsworth Field.
“I told them, ‘this is where we go to sleep,’” Hall said. ‘“This is where we just hand it to Emily (Needham) or hand it to Aleigha (Davis) and say, look, this is enough. This is where we just cruise on the rest of the game. I’m challenging you right now to get energy like it’s the first inning and let’s go out here and let’s hit the ball.’ To their credit, they answered the call.”
St. James (23-4-1) erupted for 11 runs in the fourth inning to finish off ACA 16-2 and clinch the 3A Area 5 championship for the fourth consecutive year. The title gives St. James the home-field advantage for the Area 5 tournament on May 4-5.
“We’re playing a lot better over the last couple of weeks than we have been so that’s encouraging,” Hall said. “We’ve got one more area game (against Trinity at home on Thursday) and we want to finish the right way. It’s not about winning -- we want to win -- but it’s making sure we’re doing everything in every game with every pitch to get better and prepare ourselves for the postseason.”
For ACA (8-20-1), it was the same song, different verse as the Eagles dug themselves a 4-0 hole in the first inning by committing five errors that allowed four unearned runs to score.
“You can’t give up four runs to a team of that caliber,” ACA coach Greg Howard said, “especially with who they have on the mound (Needham) and who they have behind the plate (catcher Emily Darby). A lot of them played last year in the state tournament as well. You can’t give them anything else that they don’t need.
“We can’t make one (error), we’ve got to make two or three or four errors at the same time. We don’t like to space them out at all. We like to use them all at the same time.”
St. James batted around in the first inning, but Mary Olive Maddox’s RBI double was the only hit registered by the Trojans.
St. James added another run in the second inning as Kaitlyn Hudson singled and eventually scored on a groundout for a 5-0 lead but the real damage came in the fourth as the Trojans pounded out 10 hits, including a two-run home run by Needham and a three-run home run by Darby.
ACA managed just three hits off of Needham, scoring a run in the third when Campbell Hammett hit a two-out single, stole second and scored on a single by Maddie Owens. In the fourth, Elizabeth Hall drew a leadoff walk, went to second on a single by Bentley Lamberth and eventually scored on a two-out wild pitch.
“I don’t think our girls ever quit,” Howard said. “They still competed. After the first time through the lineup, we made good adjustments at the plate. When we play error-clean defense, we’re not bad at all.”
Needham struck out 10, walked Hall twice and hit Hammett with a pitch in a complete-game victory.
Montgomery Academy 7, BTW Magnet 5
RBI singles by Davis Anne Fitzpatrick, Lucy Nelson and Ellie Steen rallied Montgomery Academy to a 7-5 win over BTW Magnet on Monday afternoon at Lagoon Park Softball Complex.
Montgomery Academy scored a run in each of the first four innings, but the Eagles were trailing 5-4 before scoring three runs in the fifth to secure the victory.
E.G. Hines picked up the win as Fitzpatrick had the save. Montgomery Academy pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts in the win. Hines allowed six hits and five runs, two earned, while striking out 11 and walking four.
Montgomery Academy scored each of the first two runs on errors and the third on a passed ball for a 3-0 lead, but BTW took the lead in the fourth with four runs.
Fitzpatrick and Hines each had two hits to lead the MA offense. Fitzpatrick, Steen, Nelson and Layla Stovall each had an RBI for the Eagles.
BASEBALL
Montgomery Academy 10, Brew Tech 9
Montgomery Academy scored five runs in the sixth inning to rally past the Rams 10-9 on Monday.
Kingston Nelson, Vincent Desautels and Paxton Haigler all had two RBIs and Chapman Baker was 2 for 2 with an RBI. Hudson Bradshaw had a hit and an RBI.
Hays Marks was the winning pitcher, throwing 3.2 innings in relief.
Montgomery Academy will play host to Alabama Christian on Thursday afternoon in a 3A Area 5 game, then travels to AUM Baseball Complex on Friday to play ACA in a doubleheader.