CHULA — District 3-3A champions Tiftarea Academy ended the regular season portion of the 2024 with a bang Thursday night, earning their ninth win of the year in a 22-15 marathon against Valwood.
Freebies helped the Lady Panthers tremendously. The 22 runs came from only nine hits, but were mixed in with 21 earned bases on balls and several Valwood errors. Spots 1-9 in the order all came to the plate six times in six innings.
Tiftarea never trailed, but did have to work their way past a 12-12 tie in the top of the fifth inning. From there, they outscored the visitors 10-3.
The Lady Panthers led 8-1 in the second, five of those crossing in the first.
Summer Gray and Coley Beth Croft began the game with bases on balls. Raelyn Owens tied the score at 1-1 when her chopper barely missed taking the third baseman with it. Calla Joyner walked to load the bases, then Carmen Corkern gave the Lady Panthers the lead with an RBI single to center.
The bases unloaded when a throw to try to get Owens at third went wild, making the score 3-1. Cloe Sercer drove in a run with a groundout. Two batters later, with the bases full again, Gray singled in Corkern.
Owens, Joyner and Corkern all came across in the second. Corkern had an RBI single. Gray, up for the third time, walked with the bases loaded for an 8-1 advantage.
Valwood got themselves back into the game with a three-run third. Tiftarea’s only scoreless inning was the bottom half, a frame that saw them lose Sercer to injury.
Two more came over for the Lady Valiants in the fourth. Tiftarea increased their score by four to give them 12th runs in the same frame.
Maggie Vickery and Carley Reese scored off walks, both coming home courtesy of a hit by Gray. Gray and Croft’s courtesy runner, Lily Kendrick, came around on a groundout by Owens and double by Joyner.
Valwood sent 10 to the plate in the fifth to square the score at 12. Tiftarea broke the tie quickly with four scoring in the bottom half.
Consecutive walks to Olivia Monfort, Vickery and Reese loaded the bags with no outs. Valwood almost got out if it with two straight strikeouts, but Croft walked to drive in a run. An error off Owens’ bat brought in the 14th run. Joyner walked in for No. 15 and a throwing error forced by Corkern resulted in two more tallies.
The Lady Valiants struck for three in the sixth, but couldn’t tie it again after Gray got a pop-up and infield grounder to escape the inning.
Tiftarea almost ended it via run rule in the bottom of the sixth with a five-run spree.
Reese and McKenna Grace Graham reached immediately, Graham on an infield single. A run came in on an error and Joyner brought in Graham and Croft on a double to make it 20-15. It was an RBI groundout for Corkern and Chloe Brand walked for the 22nd run, scoring Joyner.
For only the second time all night, Tiftarea kept Valwood from scoring in an inning. Hali Thomas had a leadoff single, but Gray got three straight outs to end the night.
Owens had three hits, Gray and Corkern, two apiece. Owens, Joyner and Corkern all had three RBIs. The most unbelievable stat line, however, may belong to Reese. She had five plate appearances and walked in all five. Brand, who hit for Reese in the sixth, also drew a walk.
Gray and Owens shared pitching duties. Owens fanned three and Gray, six. Thomas, one of two pitchers for Valwood, threw nearly 200 on the night.
From here is the state tournament for Tiftarea, though they won’t know their seed until later.