Belgreen, Tharptown continue softball season after wins
A Tharptown pitcher lunges toward the plate as she delivers her pitch.
by Bart Moss for the FCT
The Belgreen Bulldogs and Tharptown Wildcats will be headed to the softball regionals this week. Belgreen punched their ticket by winning the 1A, Area 15 tournament last week. Tharptown will be going after finishing runner up in the 2A, Area 15.
Belgreen defeated Waterloo 14-0 in the area championship game. Laken Bragwell picked up the win for the Lady Bulldogs. Bragwell struck out two and gave up only two hits. Katie Dempsey went 5-for-5 with three doubles. Courtney Williams went 3-for-4 with a triple and an inside-the-park home run. The win improved Belgreen’s record to 16-10.
Belgreen will play Cedar Bluff Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Huntsville Sportplex. If the win they will play at 5:30 p.m. later that day.
“I have been blessed this year,” said Belgreen coach Chris Scott. “The girls, coaches and parents have bought in and expect to win the state championship. They will not settle for anything else. This is the first year Belgreen softball has won the area championship and that was our goal at the beginning of the year. We are a young team and this is going to be a great experience for our girls.”
Tharptown had to climb out of the loser’s bracket in their area tournament to earn a spot in the regionals.
The Wildcats were stunned in a 10-0 loss to Phil Campbell in the first game of the tournament. With their backs against the wall and facing elimination, the Wildcats won two straight against Sulligent and Phil Campbell to earn a regional bid. The Wildcats lost to Hatton in the finals.
Tharptown trailed Phil Campbell 7-1 in the elimination game before the bats came alive and they scored 15 unanswered runs to win. Kaitlyn Vandiver had four RBIs in the game. Savannah Hamilton knocked three runners in. Kaylee Bain, Haley Malone and Autumn Sutter had two RBIs each. Vandiver, Malone, Sutter and Darla Smith each had doubles in the game.
Tharptown will play Ider at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 7 at the Huntsville Sportplex. The tournament is double elimination.
“We have a lot of experience headed into the regionals,” said Tharptown coach Tanna Benford. “That experience has helped us a lot moving up to the 2A level. The competition is much tougher. We have a lot of girls that have played in some big games throughout their high school career. They aren’t satisfied with just getting to this point. They want more.”
