In local sports action this week, the regular season softball campaigns came to a close for Starkville Academy, Oak Hill Academy and Heritage Academy on Tuesday with the Volunteers being the only team to earn a win. In volleyball, Columbus captured its first region win of the year over West Point, and New Hope ended its two-game winning streak with a loss.
Starkville Academy 11, Oak Hill 7
The Volunteers were able to score nine runs in the first inning and cruise the rest of the way to a regular-season closing victory over the visiting Raiders Tuesday night for their second straight win.
Oak Hill opened the game with a flurry of five runs scored in the top of the first inning before Starkville Academy’s explosion of runs. The Raiders added another run in the second inning to cut their deficit to three runs, but Starkville plated one run in each of the fifth and sixth innings to pull away for good. Oak Hill tallied one run in the seventh, but couldn’t complete the comeback as Lily Reed grounded out for the game’s final out.
The Raiders narrowly outhit the Vols 13-10, and Sally Chaney led the game with a double and two singles and scored two runs. Parker Higginbotham, Kaelyn Pennington and Katelyn Lewis each had two hits, and Molly Aycock, Mollie Brand, Mary Crosley Coker and Reed each had one hit.
Addie Smith and Lauren Adkerson led the Vols with two hits each, and Piper Graves, Piper Sowell, Emmi Miller and Ella Kate Heflin produced one hit. In the circle, Pennington pitched the entire game for the Raiders, walking one and fanning one. Ingram pitched for SA and gave up five earned runs with three strikeouts and one walk.
Starkville Academy will head to the postseason with a 11-6 overall record, and Oak Hill finishes its regular season on a five-game losing streak at 11-10. Both teams will play in the North regional tournaments beginning on Saturday at Bayou Academy. The Vols are the No. 3 seed in the 4A tournament and will play No. 2 Magnolia Heights at 11:45 a.m. The Raiders are the No. 4 seed in the 3A tournament and will play No. 1 Marshall Academy at 10 a.m.. A top-six finish will net either team the opportunity to play in the division state tournament, which begins on Oct. 4 at the Magee Sports Complex.
Kemper Academy 18, Heritage Academy 8
The Patriots generated their best offensive outing of the season Tuesday but it wasn’t enough to net Heritage Academy its first victory.
The visiting Rams opened the game by scoring eight runs in the first inning and nine in the second and got one more runner across home plate in the fifth inning. Heritage scored four runs in the first inning and kept chipping away at its deficit, scoring one run in both the second and third innings and two in the fourth, but the lead proved to be too large to overcome.
At the plate the Patriots got a team effort in notching seven hits. Lilla Berry, Lola Sullivan, Annabelle Brislin, Aubrey Gray, Amelia Sullivan, Mary Wagoner and Kirksey Heard all landed a hit.
Gray pitched the entire game from the circle and gave up 14 earned runs on seven hits and issued eight walks with one strikeout.
Despite being winless to end the regular season, Heritage (0-15-1) still earned a spot in the North regional 4A tournament as the No. 4 seed. They’ll play No. 1 seed and host school Bayou Academy at 10 a.m.
Volleyball
West Point broke through for its first Region 1-5A victory Tuesday night with a 3-0 sweep of host Columbus.
The win was the Green Wave’s (6-9, 1-7) first since two previous losses, and the loss increased the Falcon’s (2-14, 1-6) slide to seven games. Both teams will take a one-game nonconference break before turning back to region games next week. West Point plays at 6 p.m. today at Aberdeen while Columbus hosts Noxubee County for a 6 p.m. contest.
New Hope’s two-game winning streak came to a close Tuesday in Oxford where the team fell 3-0 to Region 1-5A leading Lafayette.
The Commodores took the first set 25-20, the second set 25-14 and the third set 25-22 in a loss that moved the Trojans (9-20, 4-3) to the No. 4 spot in the region standings behind Pontotoc. New Hope, which lost 3-2 to Pontotoc earlier in the season, squares off with the Warriors at 6 p.m. today in Columbus in a match that could move the Trojans back up to No. 3.
Starkville dropped a 3-2 loss to visiting rival Oxford Tuesday for its last Region 2-7A contest of the season.
The Yellow Jackets pulled out a close 25-23 win in the first set but soon fell behind 2-1 as Oxford tallied a 25-17 second-set win and a 25-19 victory in the third set. Starkville rallied for a 25-15 win in the fourth set, but fell just short of the win with a 15-12 loss in the fifth set.
Starkville (9-14-1, 3-7) has netted the No. 4 spot in the region standings and will close out the regular season with two nonconference games. Up next is Regents, who come to town today for a 6 p.m match.
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