Shorthanded Tigers fall at home to Marbury
Published 3:11 pm Thursday, April 25, 2013
By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser
The injury bug has bitten the Chilton County High School softball team all season, forcing the Tigers to play most of their games without the full complement of a completely healthy roster.
CCHS certainly could have used Holly Watts and Brooke Smitherman, who are both currently out with knee injuries, in a home loss to the Marbury Bulldogs on Tuesday night, 11-5.
Too late to the plate: Chilton County’s Tiffany Crowson, right, couldn’t make a tag on Marbury’s Hannah Lee during Tuesday’s game.
A Hannah Lee double to start the game for the Bulldogs led to an early run on a Hannah McCollum infield single off an error.
The Bulldogs retired the Tigers in the bottom half of the first inning, giving up only one single to Gabriel Kelley, leaving the Tigers with an early one-run deficit.
Marbury quickly added to its lead in the top half of the second inning when Krista Vinson sent a deep fly ball over the left field wall that cleared all the bases, all of which were occupied by Bulldog runners, for a grand slam home run and a five-run lead for Marbury.
After a 1-2-3 inning for the Tigers, they found themselves in an early five-run hole.
A Kristen Binion single led to the first run of the game for the Tigers after a Kristina Caton triple to left field. Caton later scored on a Kelley single to right field, and the Tigers trailed by three, 5-2.
A walk, error, single, two sacrifice flies and an infield error led to three Bulldog runs in the top of the fourth inning, while a Taylor Smitherman single led to one run for the Tigers on a Kristen Binion single to center field. The Tigers trailed after four innings of play, 8-3.
Both teams exchanged scoreless at-bats through the fifth inning, while the Tigers scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning after a Mary-Mac Hughes double led to a run after a Caton infield ground ball to short stop, making the Bulldog lead 8-4.
The Bulldogs rallied in the top of the seventh inning to put three more runs on the board.
While Hughes’ second straight double would score Hannah Jackson and add another run for the Tigers, the early deficit would turn out to be more than the Tigers could climb back from.
Hannah Oaks got the start for the Tigers on the mound and pitched 3 2/3 innings with two strikeouts, eight hits and three walks, giving up eight runs.
Caton led the way for the Tigers at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two singles, a triple and an RBI.
The Tigers will travel to Columbiana to take on Sylacauga at 10 a.m. on May 1 in the first round of the area tournament.
