Wicksburg out; Straughn survives

MONTGOMERY — With a young team, Wicksburg coach Josh Cox knew the task Friday at the Class 3A state tournament would be a tough one.

He was right.

After a promising start, the wheels fell off for Wicksburg, and the Panthers couldn’t recover. Wicksburg fell to sixth-ranked West Morgan 10-0 in six innings and to Dadeville 8-1 at Lagoon Park.

The Wiregrass’ other entry in Class 3A, Straughn, knocked off defending state champion Pisgah 3-2 in a rematch of last year’s state finals, but then fell to Sumiton Christian 4-2.

Straughn returns to Lagoon today to face Dadeville at 9 a.m. in a losers’ bracket game.

Wicksburg, which finished the year 20-23, battled West Morgan and star pitcher Laura Seibert to a scoreless tie for four innings, but then gave up eight runs in the fifth and two in the sixth.

Later in the day, the Panthers were tied 1-1 after two innings against Dadeville, but the Tigers erupted for two runs in the third and fifth and three in the sixth to
earn the win.

“We were just happy to be here,” Wicksburg head coach Josh Cox said of his team that features only two seniors. “To come in Class 2A (last year) then come
back the next year in Class 3A after moving up a classification is big for us.”

Against Dadeville, the Panthers scored in the first to tie it as Arica Dykes singled and later scored on Hillary Dykes’ sacrifice fly.

However, the rest of the game belonged to Dadeville, which began to pull away in the third and never let Wicksburg back in it.

Arica Dykes led Wicksburg’s offense, going 2-for-2 with a walk. Woodham was 2-for-3.

Greathouse, Woodham and Hillary Dykes all pitched for Wicksburg with Greathouse taking the loss.

West Morgan 10, Wicksburg 0, 6 innings: The Panthers were locked in a scoreless tie through four innings, but the Rebels erupted for eight runs in the fifth then finished with a two-run homer in the sixth to win it by 10-run mercy rule.

After a ground out to start the fifth, West Morgan had 10 straight runners reach base, leading to the eight runs.

Wicksburg finished with three hits, two from Arica Dykes. Woodham had the other hit.

Greathouse took the loss. She allowed only one hit through four innings before things fell apart. She struck out two.

Sumiton Christian 4, Straughn 2: Straughn wasted early scoring opportunities and Sumiton Christian pounced on several Tiger mistakes to take the win.

“We had an up-and-down day,” Straughn head coach Ray Wilson. “We were on a high after beating Pisgah, and honestly I would rather have not had a break, but you have to get settled back down and refocused. We made some blunders out there (in the second game) and it hurt us. Now our backs are against the wall.”

Straughn had an opportunity to break out on top in the first and third innings, getting two on board in both. Stephanie Bracewell singled and Kaitlynn Wiggins reached on an error to start the first, but three straight outs followed. In the third, Bracewell and Wiggins had back-to-back one-out singles, but a fly out and force out ended the inning.

The Tigers would strand 10 runners on base in the game.

“We left some runners on in some crucial situations,” Wilson said. “We could have gotten a lead there. We left too many runners on base and it came back to bite us.”

Sumiton Christian scored once in the fourth, cashing in a passed ball on a third strike and a catcher’s error, and added three in the fifth, capitalizing on an error
and hit by a pitch.

The Tigers earned six hits, two from Bracewell.

Wiggins struck out 11, while giving up the three hits.

Straughn 3, Pisgah 2: The Tigers bunched four hits, including three extra-base shots, for three runs in the fourth and Wiggins shut down the defending state
champs the rest of the way.

With Straughn down 2-0, Kayla Messer tripled to open the fourth then Katherine Messick singled her home. After a strikeout, Kayla Teel ripped a liner to left
that went under the glove of the leftfielder and rolled to the fence for a run-scoring triple. Tiffany Taylor followed with an RBI double in the left-center field gap to
make it 3-2.

Wiggins allowed only two runners in the final four innings. She allowed only three hits — all singles in a two-run third for Pisgah — and struck out seven. She
did have control problems, walking five.

Wiggins and Messick had two hits apiece to lead the offense for Straughn, which had eight hits.