THURSDAY PREPS: Catholic softball eases past ACA; Macon East baseball wins in Boarder War tourney

Catholic's Haley Ishman slides in ahead of the throw to ACA catcher Anna Gleason in the Knights’ win on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)

Compiled by TIM GAYLE

It was a little sloppy at times in the field, but young teams often struggle defensively early in the season. 

“We didn’t play well enough to win,” Catholic coach Whitney Toole said. “We got lucky. But I’m proud of them for fighting through the errors and everything else. We found a way at the end.”

Mallory Hildebrand hit a one-out double to the left field fence and courtesy runner Mally Barranco went to third on a wild pitch and scored on another to give the Knights a walkoff 5-4 win over Alabama Christian at Catholic on Thursday afternoon.

It was a game that featured just about every type of miscue, the product of two rebuilding squads that had inexperienced players in key positions. At the same time, it had two of the area’s best pitchers, Catholic’s Carissa Gilbert and ACA’s Izzy Warrick, keeping their teams in a closely contested contest with their performance in the circle.

Gilbert, the senior, ended up as the winning pitcher after scattering four hits while striking out five, walking four and hitting two, fighting to overcome three costly fielding errors by her defense.

“It’s very helpful to have experience in the circle (with Gilbert) and behind the plate (with Hildebrand),” Toole said. “We’ve just got to work on backing her up.”

Warrick, the Eagles’ leader as a freshman, allowed five hits while striking out eight, walking two and hitting one, battling back from three costly errors by her defense.

“I know whenever I send her out on the mound I get 100 percent, 140 percent,” ACA coach Lauren Webster Veach said. “She literally carries our team. She’s so dependable, so mentally strong. She’s our workhorse. We know she’s going to hit, she’s fielding 1.000 at shortstop, a place where a lot of people make a lot of errors.”

Warrick had a tougher time going through the heart of the Catholic batting order that included the Knights’ most experienced players as three of the five hits were doubles, including Auburn Wilcoxson’s hit in the third that drove in Haley Ishman and led to another run moments later when Hildebrand drove in Wilcoxson with a single, and Hildebrand’s hit in the seventh.

“Props to her,” Toole said in praising Warrick. “She got us on the rise ball and we haven’t had that much trouble. She probably gave us more trouble than any of the pitchers we’ve faced this year.”

Catholic scored its first run in the second inning when Kayleigh Everage’s single spun off the bat and landed approximately five feet in front of the plate, scoring Hayden Fitts. The Knights tied the game again in the sixth when Haley Ishman struck out for the third out, but ACA catcher Anna Gleason couldn’t hold the ball. She retrieved the ball and tried to tag out Ishman before calmly throwing to first, a throw that first baseman Maddie Traywick couldn’t handle as Everage scored from third.

“Two of our core values this year are determination and grit,” Veach said. “In the sixth and seventh inning, when we came up (to the plate), we said, ‘Are we being gritty now?’ That last inning, we were one bloop away from scoring. Just a few things go our way, we win that game.”

That’s because Traywick launched a two-out bomb to center in the top of the seventh that hit the top of the fence, then fell back into play for a triple. Gleason then grounded out, setting the stage for Hildebrand’s heroics in the bottom half of the inning.

For Catholic, Hildebrand went 2 for 4 with an RBI, Everage reached base twice with an RBI and a run scored and Ishman reached base three times and scored once.

“We’re starting five middle schoolers,” Toole said, “but we’re getting there. They’re getting better each game. We just fell apart a couple of times today.”

ACA is even younger, but its most experienced players did the most damage with the bats as Annabelle Pugh went 1 for 2, walked twice and scored twice and Warrick went 1 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. 

Catholic (9-4) will face Lawrence County on Friday in a tournament in Wetumpka. Alabama Christian (4-6) will play in the same tournament and will face Vestavia Hills on Friday at 1 p.m.

BASEBALL 

Macon East Academy 6, Glenwood School 5

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- The Knights got a solid pitching performance from Bryant Rascoll and Deonte Powell in the opening game of the Border Wars Tournament, defeating the Gators 6-5 at Golden Park on Thursday. 

Rascoll pitched 3.2 innings, allowing five runs on five hits while striking out three. Powell came in to get the save, pitching the final 1.1 innings of shutout relief, holding Glenwood without a hit. 

Offensively, Gunner Justice went 2 for 3 at the plate with a single, a double and an RBI, while Dalton Nickles went 2 for 2 with a pair of singles and a walk. Jabe Boroff, Luke Noffsinger, Rascoll and Hunter Timmerman all finished with a hit.

The Knights travel back to Golden Park to play Calvary Christian in a second pool game and have a third pool game Saturday before starting bracket play in the tournament.

SOFTBALL

Prattville Christian 9, Marbury 5

PRATTVILLE -- Chloe Hollon and Jersee Carter both went 2 for 4 with an RBI as the Panthers evened their record with a 9-5 win over Marbury on Thursday at Prattville Christian Academy.  

Lara Beth Nesmith picked up the win in the circle with 10 strikeouts. 

PCA (3-3) opens play in a tournament in Wetumpka against Colbert County.

Prattville 9, Marbury 4

PRATTVILLE -- Prattville scored seven runs in the bottom of the third, highlighted by Kaylee Robles’ solo home run, to defeat Marbury 9-4 on Tuesday. 

Freshman Kaytie Chandler was stellar again on the mound, going six innings, allowing 5 hits and striking out 11 Bulldogs. Jessica Cord came in and recorded her second save of the year, striking out two in her one inning of work.

“We got another great pitching performance from both Kaytie and Jess,” Prattville coach Brian Pittman said. “We really showed what we can do offensively in the third inning, scoring six runs with two outs. I’m excited to watch this group get better every time out.”

Offensively, Robles went 2 for 3 with a run scored and two RBIs, Pyper Castro was 1 for 2 with a run scored and an RBI, Magen Baker went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a double and Chandler went 1 for 3 with an RBI.

Prattville (5-3) opens play in a tournament in Wetumpka on Friday.

BOYS TENNIS

Montgomery Academy 6, Auburn High 3

Whit Davis picked up a 10-0 win over Auburn’s Jisung Choo at No. 1 singles and Guy Hood and Gaines Freeman picked up a 10-8 win at No. 1 doubles over Choo and Ahnaf Hossain to lead the Eagles to a 6-3 win over 7A Auburn High on Thursday. 

Guy Hughes, Jackson Brown and Charlie Hill won in singles and the doubles team of Jackson Brown and John Alford also won. 

Montgomery Academy (9-1) will be back in action on Monday vs Saint James at home

GIRLS SOCCER

Montgomery Academy 10, LAMP 0

Hayes Jenkins scored three goals, while Sophia Cho and Kaitlin Phenix each scored two as the Eagles rolled over LAMP 10-0 on Thursday.

Other goals were scored by Lauren Jones, Mary Elizabeth Cole and Virginia Meacham. Phenix and Cho had a pair of assists, while Jenkins, Kerstin Daniels, Meacham and Tara Samant each had an assist.