In the T.R. Miller Invitational Friday in Brewton (Saturday’s games were cancelled due to the weather) the W.S. Neal Lady Eagle softball team went 1-1 to see their record improve to 2-2.
The Lady Eagles started off the tournament with an 11-0 loss to Jay, but ended with a 10-1 win over the T.R. Miller JV team.
“In both games tonight, our pitchers did a great job,” W.S. Neal Lady Eagle softball coach Jeff Haney said. “In the first game, Jade Danley did an outstanding job. She had a rough first inning, but this was the first game she has pitched this year. She hit a couple of batters and walked a few and gave up three runs, but that is manageable. She came out the rest of the game and did an outstanding job and got us some ground balls and fly balls and our defense kind of let us down. That allowed them to score a bunch of runs, but we left 10 runners on base. You can’t play good teams and leave that many runners on base and win games like that. It hurt us.”
In the game against T.R. Miller’s JV team, Haney said pitcher Kaitlin Hadaway did a great job.
“She had it in her mindset from the beginning she was going to take charge and she did. Our defense made some makes there at the end and allowed them to score some runs. I can’t ask for anything better from her. She was outstanding. I can’t say how proud I am of the bats tonight. We hit the ball well and like I told the girls, we swung at some bad pitches, but we hit those pitches hard. We did a better job of running the bases than we had. We still have a lot of work to do and we are still young, but it is a big improvement. I have been here a few years and since I have been in the county I don’t know if it has happened, but I think in fast pitch that this may be the first time W.S. Neal has beat a T.R. Miller team in softball. That is a big win. We play their varsity next week at home and that is a big confidence booster to know that we beat someone with T.R. Miller on the jersey. I am proud of it and proud of the kids.”

Jay 11, WSN 0
In their first game of the tournament, Jay scored three runs in the first, four in the second, three in the third, and one in the fourth to down the Lady Eagles 11-0.
Danley got the start on the mound for W.S. Neal and went the complete game allowing eight hits, walked five, struck out one and hit two.
Lauren Boatwright led W.S. Neal at the plate going 2-for-3. Autumn Hinote was 1-for-3 and Heather Elliott and Anna Nelson were both 1-for-2 in the loss for the Lady Eagles.

WSN 10, TRM JV 1
In their second and final game on Friday, W.S. Neal got a stellar pitching performance from Hadaway to defeat T.R. Miller’s JV team 10-1.
Hadaway pitched the complete game and allowed no hits, no walks and struck out seven.
Nelson led W.S. Neal at the plate going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Heather Elliott had three RBIs as well. Lauren Boatwright also led the Eagles with a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Hadaway was 1-for-2 and Paige Grantham was 1-for-2.
Hinote was 1-for-1.