A full day of softball on Saturday at Walnut saw thrilling games throughout the day and was wrapped up with the Pine Grove Lady Panthers taking home the 2022 Tippah County Tournament title.
After a series of games on Thursday and a rainout on Friday, Saturday was filled with softball action. Below are the game results from Saturday.
The first game of the day saw the first pitch at 9 a.m. with the home team Lady Wildcats taking on the Ripley Lady Tigers.
In a foreshadowing of the exciting day of softball ahead, the Lady Wildcats got a walk off hit from Neely Hodum which scored Cadence Rolison on a bang-bang play at the plate for Walnut to take a 3-2 win.
Walnut wins 3-2 over Ripley. Neely Hodum single scores Cadence Rolison on an extremely close play at the plate. pic.twitter.com/7JZb46R1So
The Lady Panthers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back, defeating the Lady Eagles 16-0.
Madison Foster got the win in the circle and Pine Grove got 12 hits, including a 4-4 day from Hailey Keeton. Foster and Lexi Beard also added multiple hits.
Landon Bates was the losing pitcher for Walnut. She led the Lady Eagles by getting on base twice.
Jazzie Smithey hits a line drive to center which went off the glove of the center fielder. It ends up clearing the bases for Pine Grove. Lady Panthers lead Falkner 11-0 top of the 5th. pic.twitter.com/IaXy5bIg4I
The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead and then scored 16 runs in the second inning to take the 20-0 win over the Lady Cougars.
Pine Grove vs Ripley
Pine Grove took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first inning and added runs in every inning as they took a 9-2 win over Ripley,
Ellie Fryar, Jazzie Smithey and Hailey Keeton each totaled multiple hits. Smithey led with 3 RBI.
Lizzie Meeks took the win in the circle for the Lady Panthers. Allyson Christmas took the loss for Ripley.
Kemya McDonald had an RBI for Ripley.
Pine Grove vs Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain took a 1-0 lead after the first inning with Keyauna Foote drawing a walk and coming around to score.
The Lady Panther put up 10 runs in the second inning and was able to come away with a 12-3 victory, setting themselves up for a winner take all championship match in the final game against Walnut.
Memory Mauney led with three hits, a pair of doubles and 2 RBI. Hailey Keeton had 3 RBI on a pair of hits and 1 double. Ellie Fryar had a pair of RBI.
Hailey Keeton is on fire at the plate recently. She is 13 of her last 14 with 12 RBI in her last 4 games, including this 3-RBI double against Blue Mountain. pic.twitter.com/OY6bnM7VZ4
Madison Foster got the win in the circle for Pine Grove.
Ripley vs Falkner
The Lady Tigers blanked the Lady Eagles and took a 9-0 win in both teams final game at the TCT.
Falkner finished 1-3 while Ripley finished 2-2 in the tournament.
Pine Grove vs Walnut
The Lady Panthers and Lady Wildcats each entered the final game of the Tippah County Tournament at 3-0.
Each team fought and clawed to see who would be crowned the Big Cat of Tippah County softball.
Walnut put up a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on RBI’s by Addi Hicks and Neely Hodum to take a 2-0 lead.
Pine Grove answered in the top of the 2nd with a pair of runs scored by Carley Greer and Memory Mauney on a hard hit ball by Lexi Beard.
From there, Walnut pitcher Madison Weeks and Pine Grove hurler Lizzie Meeks went in to lock down mode.
In the top of the 5th, the hottest hitter around came through around to give the Lady Panthers the lead.
Hailey Keeton tripled on a hard hit ball to left center scoring Hana Hurt for a 3-2 Pine Grove lead.
The bottom of the fifth would be the final frame, as the time limit was reached.
Junior Catcher Ellie Fryar dove head first into the concrete backstop at Walnut to get the first out and was down for an extended period as she was checked out. After she got up with the thumbs up and a mark on her face, it was back to action.
Back-to-back singles from Cadence Rolison and Harley Garner gave Walnut two runner with one out. A wild sequence advanced both runners, but gave the Lady Panthers their second out.
Madison Weeks hit a high pop fly just to the edge of the outfield and was called out on an infield fly. The Pine Grove defense dropped the would be catch and Rolison slid in to third with Garner advancing to second.
With two out and two runners in scoring position, Lizzie Meeks struck out Addi Hicks to end the game and clinch the tournament title.
Lizzie Meeks gets the K to end it. PG wins Tippah County tournament 3-2 over Walnut pic.twitter.com/C6n9rQm82y
