Photo: The Southside High softball team gathers for a photo after winning the Class 5A Area 13 Tournament championship on Tuesday, April 30 at SHS. (Submitted photo)
By Chris McCarthy. Publisher/Editor
Southside rode a pitching staff that allowed 11 hits, two earned runs and three walks over 21 innings to win the Class 5A Area 13 title last week at SHS.
The Lady Panthers opened with a 5-1 win over Douglas on Saturday, April 27, followed by a 12-0 shutout of Boaz on Monday, April 29. Southside then posted a 6-1 victory over Boaz in the championship game on Tuesday, April 30.
The Lady Panthers (27-10-1) will compete in the East Regional Tournament next week in Albertville, where they will take on St. Clair County on Tuesday, May 7 at 10:45 a.m.
The April 30 area title contest featured seven innings of three-hit ball by Southside starter Jalyn Allen. She issued one walk and struck out four. Her only run came in the seventh inning when the Lady Panthers were already ahead by six. Allen sent down nine of the fist 22 batters she faced, retiring the side in order in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings.
Allen got the Lady Panthers on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second with an RBI single. Peyton Burrell also drove in a run during the inning.
Ava Ramsey made it 3-0 on her full-count leadoff home run in the third, while her two-run triple in the fifth put the Lady Panthers up by five runs. Burrell’s run-scoring double in the sixth closed out the scoring.
Ramsey went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored; Burrell went 2-for-4 with two RBI; and Kadey Barbe went 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Ramsey wielded a big bat in the April 29 game, going 2-for-4 with two doubles, five RBI and a run scored. Southside put across four runs in the first inning, five in the third and three in the fourth to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule.
Before giving way to Memory Kay in the fifth, Allen allowed two hits and one walk with one strikeout.
Also at the plate, Barbe went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored; Bailey Houston went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored; Jovi Marble went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored; and Allen went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Allen was again on target in the April 27 win over Douglas. She went the distance while scattering five hits and one run while striking out five. She did not issue a walk in seven innings.
Burrell and Houston scored in the bottom of the first to give Allen all the cushion she required. Rosie Garrett’s sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 3-0, and Allen and Burrell both had RBI base hits in the sixth to cap the scoring.
Burrell went 3-for-3 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored, while Marble went 2-for-3 with a run scored.