By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
How well the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers softball team performs in April could have a big say as to well they will perform in May's postseason.
With that in mind, the Lady Tigers march towards the regular season finish line continued to pick up steam Thursday when they ambushed the visiting Monroe County Lady Tigers 12-1 in five innings at the Brewton Area YMCA Sports Complex.
T.R. Miller (8-6) made quick work of the visiting Lady Tigers, as it jumped out to an 8-0 lead through the first three innings.
A fielder's choice by Cooper followed by a single by Terri Lynne Peacock, a double by Erin Byrne and a single by Emily Layton resulted in three first inning runs.
T.R. Miller doubled that lead to 6-0 in the second inning, which featured a two-run homer by Peacock.
In the third inning, singles by Emily Layton and Rachel Bostic and a walk to Ellis set up an RBI single by Haley Rilling and an RBI fielder's choice by Nalty.
After Monroe County broke up the shutout with its only run in the top of the fourth inning, the host Lady Tigers put the 10-run rule into effect with four more runs in the in the bottom half of the inning. Ellis had a bases loaded RBI walk, Rilling got a run in with a fielder's choice and Nalty muscled up for a two-run double.
That was more than enough support for Ellis, who twirled a complete game one-hitter.
The Lady Tigers host Flomaton Tuesday at 4 p.m.
At T.R. Miller
Monroe County 000 10 – 1 1 0
T.R. Miller 332 4X – 12 11 3
Tuesday's game
The Lady Tigers went back to work after a 12-day layoff and responded with a 17-0, three-inning romp over the visiting W.S. Neal Lady Blue Eagles.
T.R. Miller's lineup batted around in a four-run first inning and then batted around twice in a 13-run second inning explosion.
Three of the four first inning runs for the Lady Tigers came with two outs thanks largely to RBI singles by Emily Layton and Rachel Bostic.
Erin Byrne came through twice at the plate in the second inning uprising, as she smacked an RBI single the first time up and added a two-run single the second time around.
In addition to Byrne's two hits and three RBIs on the day, T.R. Miller got a pair of singles and two RBIs from Haley Rilling plus two singles and an RBI from both Terri Lynne Peacock and Bostic.
Leigh Cooper, who threw a one-hit shutout against W.S. Neal earlier this season as well as another one against the Lady Blue Eagles last year at the Area Tournament, was touched for a first inning single by Erica Davis in the first inning and a double by Jessica Madden in the second inning en route to the win. Leslie Nalty hurled a scoreless inning of relief.
"We were actually a little rusty after having been off for 12 days. We just need to get to practice and in the groove of things again," T.R. Miller coach Jamie Riggs said. "One down side to winning a game this quickly is we didn't get to play as many people as we wanted."
Tuesday's game was the first in 21 days for W.S. Neal, which slipped to 0-6 on the campaign.
At T.R. Miller
W.S. Neal 000 – 0 2 3
T.R. Miller 4(13)X – 17 10 2