By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
The W.S. Neal Lady Blue Eagles may have ended one streak against T.R. Miller Monday, but the Lady Tigers softball team continued a more important one with their 16-1, four-inning victory at the Brewton Area YMCA Park Monday.
W.S. Neal (0-4) ended a string of four straight shutout losses at the hands of T.R. Miller (2-2) when it scored in the top of the first inning when Jessica Lambert reached on an infield error and scored on Jessica Madden's RBI double.
The response to that run by the Lady Tigers, who have yet to lose to W.S. Neal in fast-pitch play, were 16 unanswered runs.
Six of those came in the bottom of the first inning when T.R. Miller sent 10 batters to the plate with the big blows being a two-run single by winning pitcher Leigh Cooper, an RBI double by Catherine Layton and an RBI single by Amelia Couture.
T.R. Miller had an even bigger inning in the bottom of the second when it sent 13 batters to the plate in an eight-run rally that made it 14-1. The Lady Tigers only had three hits in that inning although one was a key two-run single by Catherine Layton. T.R. Miller benefited largely from three walks, a hit batter and three errors by the W.S. Neal defense.
The Lady Tigers ended the game on the mercy rule in the fourth inning when Terri Lynne Peacock and Cooper both walked, stole second and scored on throwing errors.
Cooper worked the first two innings of the win, while Leslie Nalty hurled two scoreless frames of relief.
At T.R. Miller
W.S. Neal 100 0 – 1 3 4
T.R. Miller 680 2 – 16 8 1
TRM drops finale at Andalusia
The Lady Tigers were eliminated in the opening round of the consolation bracket from the Andalusia Saturday when they fell to Elba 5-3.
Elba jumped out to a 4-0 lead when it plated a pair of runs in the first and third innings.
T.R. Miller got a couple of those runs back in the top of the fifth on Taelor Robinson's RBI single and a run-scoring error on a ball hit by Haley Rilley.
Elba picked up a key insurance run in the bottom of the fifth that stretched its lead to 5-2.
Emily Layton scored an unearned run in the top of the sixth to make it 5-3, but that would be as close as T.R. Miller got.
The Lady Tigers were limited to four hits, one each by Peacock, Cooper, Nalty and Robinson.
Cooper took the loss although she only allowed five hits.
The Lady Tigers, who hosted Excel Tuesday, travel to Monroe County Thursday and host Andalusia Friday.
At Andalusia
T.R. Miller 000 021 – 3 4 2
Elba 202 01X – 5 5 2