By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
It was an obvious question facing the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers softball team: If they could not beat Andalusia's junior varsity team the previous week at the Andalusia Tournament, how would they fare against Andalusia's varsity?
The answer: not very well.
While the Lady Tigers battled the state-ranked Lady Bulldogs tough for three innings, Andalusia pulled away down the stretch for an 8-1 win at the Brewton Area YMCA Park Friday.
T.R. Miller (4-3) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Catherine Layton singled home Leigh Cooper.
Errors by the Lady Tigers' defense soon took their toll.
An error, a single and a double enabled Andalusia to tie the game in the top of the third. Another error opened the door for a five-run rally by the Lady Bulldogs in the top of the fourth that put Andalusia up 6-1. Another error led to two more runs in the seventh.
Leigh Cooper, who took the loss, had a pair of hits to lead the Lady Tigers hitting.
T.R. Miller's next game is Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. when it visits J.U. Blacksher.
At T.R. Miller
Andalusia 001 500 2 – 8 14 1
T.R. Miller 010 000 0 – 1 5 5
The Lady Tigers picked up their first road win of the season Thursday when they knocked off the Monroe County Lady Tigers 9-1.
Five of T.R. Miller's 11 hits went for extra bases. The biggest was a two-run homer by Terri Lynne Peacock in the top of the first inning that gave the visiting Lady Tigers a lead they would not relinquish.
After Haley Rilling's RBI single in the top of the second inning extended T.R. Miller's lead to 3-0, the visitors were kept off the scoreboard until the top of the sixth. By that time T.R. Miller's lead was down to 3-1, but the visiting Lady Tigers broke the game open in their final two trips to the plate.
Amelia Couture and Taelor Robinson had RBI singles in the sixth inning that took the lead up to 5-1. In the seventh inning, Emily Layton drilled a triple, Peacock singled her home, Leigh Cooper hit her second double of the game to plate another run, Leslie Nalty smashed an RBI triple and an error sent Nalty home to make it 9-1.
In addition to her two doubles, Cooper went the distance on the mound with a four-hitter and five strikeouts to get the win.
At Monroe County
T.R. Miller 210 002 4 – 9 11 1
Monroe Co. 000 100 0 – 1 4 1
The Lady Tigers came from behind to trip up the visiting Excel Lady Panthers 8-5 Tuesday.
T.R. Miller spotted Excel a 3-0 in the top of the second inning, but the Lady Tigers rallied with a key five-run inning in the bottom half of the third inning to take the lead for good.
The key blows were RBI doubles by Terri Lynne Peacock and Shandreka Foster, but perhaps the biggest play came when two
See LADY TIGERS Page 3B
runs scored when Amelia Couture's infield grounder was thrown away.
Peacock muscled up for an RBI triple in the fourth inning, Taelor Robinson came up with an RBI single in the fifth inning and Leslie Nalty get another un in with a fielder's choice in the sixth to keep the Lady Panthers behind at safe distance.
Leigh Cooper, who along with Haley Rilling and Peacock had two hits on the day to lead the offense, picked up the win. Cooper scattered seven hits and struck out four.
At T.R. Miller
Excel 030 012 0 – 5 7 2
T.R. Miller 005 111 X – 8 11 2