Spring Garden posted its seventh consecutive Class 1A, Area 13 softball win with an 11-1 victory over Gaylesville Friday at Spring Garden. The Panthers are now 7-0 in area games. A game against Gaston, rescheduled twice already, will not alter the area standings and is not expected to by reset a third time. Against the Trojans, the Panthers took the lead for good with two runs in the third inning. With two out, leadoff hitter Bridget Parris tripled to score Tara Mullinax. Jordan Sides followed with an RBI double.
The Panthers got another run in the fourth. Carly Mitchell singled to score Heather Smart who had walked.
Four runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth iced the win. In the fifth, Bree Blevins delivered the big hit, a two-run single that scored Parris and Sides. Harley Bonds and Lindsey Lambert also crossed the plate.
Blevins doubled home Bonds in the sixth. Blevins, Lambert and Smart later scored.
Blevins and Mitchell had three hits. Blevins drove in three runs and Mitchell had two RBI. Parris, Sides, Lambert and Mullinax had two hits. Lambert also had two RBI. Scoring twice were Parris, Sides, Lambert, Bonds and Smart.
Blevins was also the winning pitcher. In six innings she faced only 21 batters. Blevins struck out 16 and allowed one earned run on three hits.
The day before the win over Gaylesville, Spring Garden split a doubleheader with Cedar Bluff and Ranburne at Cedar Bluff. Against host Cedar Bluff, Spring Garden won 18-1 in four innings. The Panthers batted four times – scoring twice in the first inning, six times in the second, once in the third and nine times in the fourth.
Sides had a double and two singles and Parris three singles to lead Spring Garden. Breanna Messer and Lambert both singled twice. Lambert drove in four runs. Sides had three RBI and scored three times. Mullinax and Smart each had two RBI. Parris, Messer, Mullinax, Smart, Mitchell and Ivy Franklin – running for Bonds – all scored twice.
Sides pitched all four innings, struck out three and walked one.
In Spring Garden’s second game, the Ranburne Bulldogs down the Panthers 2-0. Ranburne scored both its runs – one earned and one unearned – in the sixth.
“We got some hits. We just didn’t put them together,” said Spring Garden coach Ann Welsh.
Sides and Blevins each had two hits and Bonds had one. All five Panther hits were singles.
Blevins was the hard-luck loser. Over seven innings, she struck out 11 Bulldogs. Blevins allowed four hits and walked four.
Spring Garden (12-6) was to play a doubleheader at Ranburne yesterday. The Panthers entertain Class 4A power Saks this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Spring Garden opens play in the Cherokee County tournament against Sand Rock Friday at Gaylesville.
