PREP SOFTBALL: St. James slides past Prattville Christian
Emily Needham was the winning pitcher in St. James’ win over PCA on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
After scoring an early run in Tuesday’s game between St. James and Prattville Christian, Trojan coach Mark Hall knew he would need more if he wanted to beat the Panthers.
“We had to play well to beat them because they’re a quality team,” Hall said. “When (PCA ace Alivia) Messick and (St. James ace Emily) Needham go against each other, you anticipate a low-scoring game so every opportunity to score you have to take advantage of. I thought Messick did well, kept us off balance, and Emily did her thing the majority of the game.”
St. James found some much-needed offense late, scoring a run in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth to defeat the Panthers 4-1 at St. James.
St. James’ second baseman Sydney Johnston scored the game’s only run through the first four innings in the bottom of the first to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead. It would remain that way until the fifth when Tat Shuford doubled over the left fielder’s head to score Johnston, who had drawn a leadoff walk.
“It was huge,” Hall said. “Tat is one of our best hitters, if not our top hitter, and she was struggling a little bit and was down on herself so for her to come up and do that was big. When you’re in tight games, 1-0 is not fun. When you get another run, it takes a little of the pressure off, especially when you’ve got ‘00’ (Needham) in the circle.”
Johnston returned to the plate in the sixth and hit a bloop single to right to score two more runs.
“Sydney Johnston came up big tonight,” Hall said. “Late in the game, if Sydney doesn’t drive in those two runs, instead of a 4-1 game you’re looking at 2-1 and then it really gets tight, so that was a really big hit by Sydney.”
PCA’s Saniyah Weaver tripled to left center field with one out in the sixth to break up Needham’s no hitter but was stranded at third. Megan Masters hit a one-out single in the seventh and scored on Sara Payton Schmidt’s double to break up the shutout.
Needham allowed just those three hits while walking two and striking out 14 as PCA coach Randy Stough huddled his players on two occasions in front of the dugout to preach fundamentals at the plate.
“We made it worse on ourselves,” Stough said. “We were trying to overswing instead of just putting the bat on the ball, staying relaxed, being confident. But she’s a very good pitcher.”
Messick allowed seven hits, walked three and struck out eight in going the distance for the Panthers.
Prattville Christian (16-4) will take a week off for spring break, returning on March 25 with an area game at Catholic.
St. James (18-2) will travel to Phenix City on Thursday to play Class 7A Central.