Lady Golden Tigers go 1-2 in Class 5A regional
The softball postseason run by the Russellville Lady Golden Tigers came to an end at the AHSAA Class 5A North Regional held at the Florence Sportsplex.
Russellville’s young varsity squad that consists of no seniors or juniors pulled an upset over the Ardmore Tigers in impressive fashion by a 10-5 score during the opening game of the double- elimination regional tournament. Entering the contest, Ardmore had a record of 27-17-1.
RHS then faced the tough task of playing two ranked teams. The Lady Golden Tigers fell to Scottsboro and the following day lost to Boaz with both games decided by only one run.
Russellville put runs on the board in every inning but the first and last during the win over Ardmore. The Lady Golden Tigers outhit AHS 12-6 with Bri McCulloch and Taitum Bishop leading the charge with three hits each. Alexia Groce added two hits, and additional hits were by Ticelee Gholston, Chloe James, Sadie Odom and Blevyn Sappington.
McCulloch had a triple, and doubles were collected by Groce, Bishop and Sappington. Kaylee Suggs was the RBI leader for Russellville with three. Sappington and Groce drove in two runs each while McCulloch and James added one RBI apiece.
Suggs pitched all seven innings for the win. The right-hander struck out five and walked one. All runs scored by Ardmore were unearned.
RHS tried for a late rally versus Scottsboro but fell short by a final score of 3-2. The Lady Golden Tigers plated both of their runs with two outs in the top half of the seventh inning on consecutive RBI doubles by Gholston and McCulloch. The potential tying run was left on base when the game ended on a groundout.
Khristyan Huerta and Sappington led the team with two hits each. Groce and James also hit safely.
Bishop went the distance in the pitching circle, allowing only one earned run. She struck out three and walked none.
The contest between RHS and Boaz was a battle to the end with the Pirates getting a 7-6 victory in walk-off fashion.
Russellville held a 5-2 advantage going into the bottom of the fourth inning when Boaz scored twice to get within a run of the Lady Tigers. RHS added a run of its own in the sixth, but three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning by Boaz ended the season of the Lady Golden Tigers.
Bishop had two hits and drove-in three Russellville runs. Sappington added two hits and one RBI. James collected one RBI and Huerta had an RBI single. Additional hits were by Gholston, McCulloch and Groce.
Suggs did the pitching for Russellville.
Finishing the season with a runner-up performance in the area tournament to a Class 5A ranked Lawrence County team and winning a game in the regional before falling to two ranked squads was a positive way to end the season for the RHS team made-up of five sophomores, five freshmen, two eighthgraders and one seventhgrader.
“To start the season off 0-11, and it took us six ball games before we scored our first run, then we went into area and regionals and we’re able to compete with the top-10 ranked teams in (Class) 5A, I’m extremely proud of them,” head coach Rick Lawson said.
“To find a downside in this, it’s that they’ve put a mark on their back now because everybody understands that this is not a Russellville team that you can take for granted going into the future. They’ve shown growth, maturity and learned how to play this game the right way.
“Again, if you’re going to find a downside, you’re not going to sneak-up on anybody anymore,” Lawson added.
