CHULA — Tiftarea Academy head coach Chance Benson summed up Monday’s softball victory over Deerfield-Windsor as “A win.”
How the Lady Panthers arrived at their 8-0, six-inning run-rule victory probably won’t be in the running for an Academy Award, but it raised their District 3-3A record to 5-1, setting up a huge showdown Tuesday with Brookwood to determine the conference title.
The Lady Panthers posted single runs in the second, third and fifth frames before a five-run explosion in the sixth allowed them to walk it off. Raelyn Owens and Summer Gray combined to shut out Deerfield while giving up no hits. Owens fanned five and Gray struck out one in her 2/3 of an inning in relief.
Carmen Corkern got the scoring started in the second when she reached on a miscue. A walk to Cloe Sercer moved her into scoring position, coming in handy when Corkern took off for third and the Lady Knights threw wild to try to get her. Corkern scored on the play.
One inning later, Gray led off with a double to shallow center. She went to third on a wild pitch and came in on an RBI groundout by Olivia Monfort. The score stayed 2-0 until the fifth. Gray got on because of an error, moved up on a wild pitch and around the bases on another Deerfield-Windsor gift.
Everything happened with two outs in the sixth, starting with McKenna Graham reaching. Gray produced an RBI double past shortstop and everything began falling Tiftarea’s way. Coley Beth Croft got on, then Owens on a single, which led to Croft’s courtesy runner, Carley Reese, coming home.
Monfort singled in Owens to make it 7-0. Calla Joyner stepped up and hit a ball that the Lady Knights couldn’t handle, Emmalee Brannen coming in for the eighth and final run.
In between scores, the Lady Panthers made their share of big defensive plays.
Deerfield-Windsor’s first batter of the night walked. Catcher Coley Beth Croft promptly threw her out trying to steal. Croft finished off another big play. With runners on first and second with no outs in the fifth, Deerfield thought they had something going on a miscue.
However, the runner was caught between first and second,, Monfort tagging for the first out. The Lady Knights waited too late to send the runner from third on the play and Monfort fired to Croft at the plate for the tag. Owens finished the escape with an infield pop.
Gray finished the game with three hits and an RBI. Monfort drove in two. Croft had the other RBI.