Oakland ousts Tigerettes from Border Battle

Following their 2-1 win over Tullahoma, the Marshall County Tigerettes (11-9) were knocked out of the Lincoln County Border Battle in the second round of the loser's bracket on Saturday afternoon when they lost 7-1 in six innings to the Oakland Lady Patriots, who defeated MCHS 10-1 in pool play two days earlier.

Having scored a total of three runs in their two previous contests, Marshall County continued to struggle at the plate and mustered only five hits and a walk against Oakland starting pitcher Abby Sargent.

Morgan Moyers recorded her second multi-hit game of the day by going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Madison Thomason, Brianna Roberts, and Ashton Watkins each had a hit for the Tigerettes as well.

Facing a Lady Patriot offense that was averaging 6.2 runs per game coming into the contest, MCHS freshman pitcher Jacey Perryman suffered the loss in the circle after allowing seven runs on 12 hits and two walks over six innings.

"Oakland is in a tough triple-A District where they have to hit the ball in order to compete. They certainly came out and did that today," said Marshall County coach Holly Cook.

Sargent (1 RBI), Aubrey Crowell (2 RBI), McKinley Preston, and Holly Shirey (2 RBI) each tallied two hits to spearhead the Lady Patriots' offensive attack.

Marshall County took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Moyers scored on a RBI single by Roberts after reaching base on a leadoff single and advancing to second on a Thomason sacrifice bunt.

The Tigerettes lead would be short lived, however, as Oakland (13-8) crossed home plate three times in the bottom of the first on two walks and four hits, highlighted by a Crowell RBI single and a two-run single by Shirey, to seize a 3-1 advantage.

In the second, the Lady Patriots stretched their lead to 4-1 when Haley Carter raced home on a RBI single by Crowell after legging out an infield single and stealing second.

Oakland then opened up a 6-1 advantage in the third inning thanks to a pair of RBI singles by Brooklyn Cauthern and Sargent before pushing their lead to 7-1 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Michaela Vanderpool.

After working around a two-out single by Thomason in the fifth inning, Sargent stranded a Tigerette runner at third in the sixth to close out the Lady Patriot victory.