In a home tri-match Friday against Jay and Montgomery Catholic, the T.R. Miller softball team split.
T.R. Miller defeated the Jay Royals 4-2 in their first game Friday to improve to 11-0 but suffered their first loss in the nightcap to Montgomery Catholic 8-4 to drop to 11-1 this season.
“First of all I am just glad to play. Two games in several days and having a couple of rainouts, I am just glad to play,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “Jay is a very good team and we came out and played exceptional defense. I think Leah Brundidge may have played the best game of her career at third base. She did really well. Laurel Billy pitched really well after starting out kind of rough in the first inning. She then got in a groove and kind of kept Jay off-balanced all night. We were able to score a few runs but defensively we had an error or two but we made exceptional plays on defense. We made several big plays on defense tonight to help win that game.”
In the second game, White said Catholic had a real good pitcher and like Billy against Jay in game one, she kind of kept the Lady Tigers off-balanced the whole game.
“We had a few hits here and there but could not put it together,” he said. “We rallied there late but their first five runs were set up on our mistakes. We got behind but I was very proud of them to show a lot of toughness to battle back. We just plugging a long and got it down to one or two runs. We shuffled some folks around with Taylor Guthrie being hurt but I was proud of them hanging in there and fighting. We have two big area games next week so we need to get in there and fight.”
But while the Lady Tigers took their first loss of the season Friday night, it was T.R. Miller’s annual pink game and White was thankful for the support the fans showed for it.
“Thanks to all of the T.R. Miller fans who came out tonight in their pink and supported us and for making donations for breast cancer awareness,” he said. “All of the donations collected will to the T.R. Miller Relay for Life team. We have great fans and we appreciate their support.”
T.R. Miller is scheduled to play area opponents Excel Thursday at home at 4:30 p.m. and a JV game at 6 p.m.

TRM 4, Jay 2
The T.R. Miller Lady Tiger softball team improved to 11-0 this season after they defeated the Jay Lady Royals 4-2 in the first game Friday.
T.R. Miller led Jay 1-0 after the first inning but saw Jay tie the game with one run of their own in the second inning.
The Lady Tigers added two more runs in the third inning and one in the fifth while holding Jay to one in the fifth to get the win by two.
Laurel Billy went the distance on the mound for T.R. Miller and allowed five hits, two runs, one earned, walked six, hit one and struck out one.
At the plate, Audrey Hamric was 1-for-3 and Leah Brundidge was 2-for-3 with a single and a triple and one RBI.
Takeysia McFugerson had a single and Kelsey Thompson continued her recent hot steak at the plate as she was 2-for-3 with one RBI.
Lauren Ward was 1-for-3 and Billy was 2-for-2 with a double.

Montgomery Catholic 8, TRM 4
In their second game of the tri-match Friday, T.R. Miller suffered their first loss of the season with an 8-4 loss to Montgomery Catholic.
Catholic led T.R. Miller 2-1 after the first inning and 5-1 after the second inning. T.R. Miller would cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth before Catholic responded with three runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-3 lead. T.R. Miller added one run in the final inning but could not get any closer as they lost by four.
Billy took the loss on the mound as she allowed eight runs, nine hits, struck out five and walked eight and hit one.
At the plate, the Lady Tigers had only four hits in the loss.
Hamric had an inside-the-park homerun and Brundidge had a single. Thompson added a single and Ward had a single in the loss.