MIDWEEK PREPS: St. James softball wins key area game over ACA; MA boys tennis holds off LAMP

ACA second baseman Lily Sconyers watches as St. James’ Ava Stanford slides into second in the Lady Trojans’ win on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

COMBINED REPORTS

It was a classic pitcher’s duel, even if the score didn’t reflect it.

St. James scored four runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to pull out a 6-4 victory over Alabama Christian in a key 3A Area 6 game at ACA on Tuesday, taking advantage of several crucial breakdowns by the Eagles to grab control of the area race.

“We’re definitely in the driver’s seat,” St. James coach Mark Hall said, “but we can be ejected pretty quick if we don’t handle business. Nothing’s guaranteed. They’ll be hungry (in the rematch next week at St. James), they’re well coached and they’ll be ready for us next time. And we’ve got some other area games we’ve got to play well in, too.” 

“I knew going into the game this was going to be a tough opponent. To this point, this is our biggest win of the season.”

St. James (16-9-1) improved to 3-0 in area play, a game ahead of ACA (2-1), followed by Trinity (1-2) and Montgomery Academy (0-3). The Trojans will face Trinity on Wednesday at 3 p.m. The top seed will host the area tournament in the first week of May.

Tuesday’s game was a battle between ACA’s Izzy Warrick and St. James’ Emily Needham. Needham’s offensive support gave the Trojans a slight edge that was aided by the absense of ACA first baseman Maddie Traywick, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

“There’s a lot of moving parts out there,” said ACA coach Lauren Webster Veach, noting the injury forced three players to move to different positions. “We’ve played there before -- we practiced there, we’ve played there -- so there’s no excuses.”

Neither team threatened until the fourth inning. Tat Shuford ripped a single to center field, but Peyton Dees was called out for leaving second base early, taking a run off the board. ACA responded with a pair of infield hits that tipped off of gloves and were compounded by throwing errors that led to a pair of runs and a 2-0 lead.

“That’s a crucial part of the game, a coaching error on my part,” Hall said. “Then they come in and get two runs and the next thing you know, we’re down 4-1 when it should have been 2-2 going into the last inning.

“A couple of the unfortunate plays we had in the field were 100 percent effort plays that we just didn’t make, but you can’t get on a kid for going 100 percent. I don’t feel like we played our best softball until late in the game, but a lot of that is credit to Warrick. She’s a great pitcher. It took us a little while to start getting some breaks.”

St. James answered with an unearned run in the fifth before ACA scored two in the fifth when Warrick’s two-out fly to deep center bounced out of left fielder’s Kaitlyn Hudson’s glove.

In the sixth inning, it was ACA’s turn to suffer several costly defensive breakdowns. The Trojans got the only earned run of the game when Sydney Johnston led off with a single and scored on a one-out single to right field by Dees. Tat Shuford followed with a single to left, but three consecutive errors by the Eagles helped the Trojans take the lead for good.

Needham picked up the win, allowing no earned runs on five hits in seven innings while walking two, hitting one and striking out 12.

“She had a perfect game going through three innings, but we were having great at-bats,” Veach said. “Her drop ball was working well, but we were making her throw pitches. We were fouling off pitches. I was pleased with our at-bats, they just weren’t equating to anything. We just kept pushing.”

 Warrick suffered the loss, allowing one earned run on six hits in seven innings while walking one and striking out seven.

ACA will play host to Prattville Christian on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. before resuming area play next week with games against St. James and Montgomery Academy.

 “A lot of things could have gone better,” Veach said, “but we still had a lot of positive things we did.”

SOFTBALL

Trinity 24, Montgomery Academy 4

The Lady Wildcats racked up 15 hits en route to a big 3A Area 6 win over Montgomery Academy on Tuesday afternoon.

Trinity (9-8) improved to 1-2 in area play and will travel to St. James on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in another area game moved up from Thursday to avoid inclement weather.

Leading the Wildcats at the plate was Ava Milton, who went 4 for 4 with 2 home runs, a double, an intentional walk and a lefty slap single. Milton finished with five runs scored and six RBIs.

Evie Knight was 3 for 5, scoring 4 runs with three RBIs, Lilly Yancey was 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI and 7th grader Maddie McKeithen recorded her first hit of the season with a two-run single to left field.

In the circle Marley Sharpless pitched 4.1 innings, giving up two hits and striking out one. Ava Milton pitched two-thirds of an inning, allowing just one hit while striking out two.

Prattville Christian 6, Marbury 0

MARBURY -- Alivia Messick pitched a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits while striking out nine in a 6-0 win over the 5A Bulldogs.

Brinkley Sailors went 3 for 3 with an RBI to lead the PCA offense. Sarah Williams and Chloe Hollon both hit solo home runs and finished 2 for 4.

PCA (17-7) will travel to Alabama Christian on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m., in a game moved from Thursday because of the threat of inclement weather.

BASEBALL

Lowndes Academy 6, Edgewood Academy 3

Clayton Hussey’s double broke a 3-3 tie to lift Lowndes Academy to a 6-3 win over Edgewood Academy on Tuesday.
Edgewood Academy Varsity Wildcats fired up the offense in the first inning.  An error scored one run for Edgewood Academy Varsity Wildcats.
Hussey was on the pitcher's mound for Lowndes Academy Varsity Rebels. The pitcher went two innings, allowing one run on two hits and striking out two.
Drew Allison led Edgewood Academy with two hits.

Trinity 10, St. James 0 (5)

Trinity pitchers limited the Trojans to three hits as the Wildcats won a game limited to five innings by the mercy rule at St. James on Monday.

Copeland Service pitched five innings for the Wildcats, while D.M. Lieux had two hits and a pair of RBIs, Ross Sanders drove in a couple of runs and Cooper Bernier added an RBI as Trinity scored three runs in the first inning and broke the game open with a five-run third.

St. James, saving all their pitchers for a key area series later in the week, got 2.2 innings out of starter Tabor Offord, who struck out four, and 2.0 innings from KJ Jackson, who struck out two.

Trinity (15-11) will begin a 4A Area 4 matchup at Booker T. Washington on Thursday.

St. James (14-9) will face Prattville Christian in a 3A Area 6 battle for the area championship on Thursday.  

Alabama Christian 6, LAMP 4

Hunter Barfoot allowed just three earned runs in six innings while striking out three as the Eagles defeated the Golden Tigers 6-4 at the AUM Baseball Complex on Monday.

Preston Hicks picked up the save, holding the Tigers without a hit in the seventh inning.

At the plate, Hicks went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI and Landon Nelson went 2 for 4. Hayes Hunt went 1 for 3 with a triple and an RBI and Mac Moorer went 1 for 3 with an RBI.

ACA (8-14) will host Montgomery Academy in a 3A Area 6 three-game series beginning on Thursday, while LAMP will travel to Catholic for the start of a 4A Area 4 four-game series on Thursday.

BOYS SOCCER

Westminster-Oak Mountain 6, Prattville Christian 0

BIRMINGHAM -- PCA went on the road Tuesday and was shut out 6-0 at Westminster-Oak Mountain.

PCA (4-7) will play host to Tuscaloosa Academy on Friday.

Trinity 1, Auburn 0

Jackson Champion scored the lone goal on an assist by Kip Brown as the Wildcats won a defensive struggle with 7A Auburn 1-0 at Ragsdale-Boykin Field on Monday.

Goalkeeper Carter Younger recorded the shutout for the Wildcats, who won their 16th consecutive game on Monday.

Trinity (16-4-1) travel to Dale County for a 4A Area 2 matchup on Friday at 7 p.m.

Prattville Christian 7, Holy Spirit 3

PRATTVILLE -- Cohen Palmore scored four goals and assisted on another as the Panthers evened their area record at 1-1 with a 7-3 win over Holy Spirit on Monday at Panther Stadium.

Cade Segars added a pair of goals and had four assists.

Brady Roberson scored a goal, while Carson Roberson and Liam Taylor each had one assist.   

GIRLS SOCCER

Montgomery Academy 3, Dothan 1

Caroline Waller, Mary Elizabeth Cole and Hayes Jenkins each scored a goal in the Eagles’ 3-1 win over 7A Dothan on Tuesday.

Jenkins, Madison Yi and Sophia Cho each had an assist in the win.

Westminster-Oak Mountain 10, Prattville Christian 0

BIRMINGHAM -- The Panthers traveled to Westminster-Oak Mountain and were shut out 10-0 in a soccer game on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, the Panthers picked up a forfeit win as Holy Spirit did not have enough players to play the area match.

PCA (8-2-1) will play host to Tuscaloosa Academy on Friday.

St. James 4, Tuscaloosa Academy 1

TUSCALOOSA -- Katie Brightwell scored all four of her team’s goals as the Trojans defeated Tuscaloosa Academy 4-1 on Monday afternoon.

Mary Grace Hixon assisted on three of the goals. Sana Shuford assisted on the opening goal.  

Enterprise 3, Catholic 0

ENTERPRISE -- The 7A Wildcats shut out the Knights for only the second time this season as Catholic fell 3-0 in a soccer match on Monday.

The Knights were held to just seven shots on goal -- two by Anna Russo and one each from Ellis O’Connor, Hannah Chitlik, Eryn Owens, Jehle Dickson and Michael Ann Williams. The Knights had not been shut out since a similar 3-0 defeat by Montgomery Academy in the season opener on Feb. 7.

Goalkeeper Heather Walski had 10 saves for the Knights.

Catholic (10-4) will return to 4A Area 2 play at BTW Magnet on Thursday before closing out area play with a home game against LAMP next Tuesday.

BOYS TENNIS

Montgomery Academy 5, LAMP 4

The Eagles won their second match in as many days, rallying to win the last two matches to turn back the Golden Tigers 5-4 at Montgomery Academy on Tuesday.

Singles winners for Montgomery Academy No. 2 Charlie Hill, No. 3 John Alford, No. 4 Jackson Brown and No. 6 Edwin Wu. With the Eagles down 4-3, Wu’s win tied the score at 4-4 and Hill’s win clinched the match for MA.

Singles winners for LAMP were No. 1 Edward Lee and No. 5 Wonjun Lee.

Montgomery Academy’s No. 2 doubles team of Alford-Brown won, while the LAMP doubles teams of Edward Lee and Ian Shin at No. 1 and Sunho Kim and Wonjun Lee at No. 3 won matches.

Montgomery Academy (21-6) will host 7A Section 2 opponent Smiths Station in the Eagles’ final regular season match on Wednesday at MA’s McLemore Tennis Center.

Montgomery Academy 9, Dothan 0

The Eagles swept 7A Section 2 opponent Dothan in singles and doubles to pull out a 9-0 win on Monday at O’Connor Tennis Center.

Whit Davis, Charlie Hill, John Alford, Jackson Brown, Ford Morano and Edwin Wu won singles matches while the teams of Davis-Hill, Alford-Brown, Morano-Ron Sharma won doubles matches.

Montgomery Academy (20-6) improved to 5-1 in 7A Section 2.

BOYS GOLF

Montgomery Academy finishes second in tri-match at Troy

TROY -- Montgomery Academy finished second in a tri-match with Pike Liberal Arts and Marbury on Monday at the Troy Country Club, shooting a team score of 316.

Mac Freeman was the Eagles’ low medalist with a score of 77, followed by McRae Foshee at 78, William Hall at 79, Breland Burnham at 82 and Joe Drumwright at 83.