Tigerettes' comeback opens door for Spring Fling

The Marshall County Tigerettes treated a capacity crowd to a thrilling come-from-behind 4-2 win over Creekwood in the opening round of the Region 6-AA tournament at Reese Hambrick Field in Lewisburg on Monday afternoon under ominous skies.

The Tigerettes put the first score on the board in the third inning when leadoff hitter Brandie Jett reached on a one out single and Austyn Whaley followed with a base hit in front of the Red Hawks' leftfielder who misplayed the ball as Jett scampered home for a 1-0 advantage.

The visitors came back to claim the lead in the top of the fourth frame on the strength of two hits sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt by the bottom third of their batting order.

It would be their last real offensive threat of the contest as Marshall County pitcher Mieke Wallace put the clamps on after that to allow only two hits in the last three innings.

Marshall County answered with three runs in the fifth to take control of the game with Jett once again the offensive catalyst as she led off the rally with a single.

Whaley sacrificed the runner over to scoring position and she was followed by sophomore Brianna Roberts who reached on an error to place runners at the corners for the Blue and White.

Alert base running by Jett tied the game at 2-all on a wild pitch as Wallace reached base on a walk.

Freshman Morgan Moyers then delivered one of the biggest hits of her young career after a 10 pitch battle to edge her squad ahead by a 3-2 count.

Danielle Toseland capped off the scoring with a solid single right back where it came from to plate Wallace to account for the final tally.

"Our bats have been dead over the last few games," Marshall County coach Holly Cook said. "It was good to see us make some solid contact in this game. We worked hard during the week and it paid off today."

Wallace picked up the win with a complete game effort. She scattered nine hits, walked two and struck out a pair of hitters.

Jett led the offense with three hits and two runs scored in four trips to the plate. Whaley added three knocks as well in three official at-bats out of the two hole.

The Tigerettes, playing in their second region tournament of Cook's three year tenure, advance to play the winner of the Lewis County vs. Camden game which was cancelled Monday night and will be played today.

Should Lewis defeat Camden the game will be in Lewisburg on Wednesday, but if Camden wins the location will be determined by a coin flip due to identical records and rankings.

The participants in the Region 6-AA title game will both play sectional games on Friday night with the winners earning a berth to the Spring Fling.