S

The Huntland High School Lady Hornets beat the South Pittsburg Lady Pirates 13-7 on the road Thursday for their eighth win of the season.

The Lady Hornets led for the entire contest and pulled away in the last two innings after multiple rally attempts by the Lady Pirates to secure the victory.

Huntland head softball coach Michael Tipps said that his team did a good job of rebuilding its lead multiple times throughout the game while also performing well in two-out situations for the day.

“When (South Pittsburg) started cutting it back, we got the runs back, and a lot of times, it came with nobody on and two outs,” he said, referring to the Lady Hornets scoring eight runs in innings where the first two batters of the frame recorded outs. “That’s coming up with the big hit.”

The Lady Hornets scored their first run of the day in the top of the first when Bailey Morris got hit by a pitch, stole second and then came around to score on a throwing error after successfully stealing third base as well.

The Lady Hornets added to the lead in the top of the third as DeAnna Burton hit a two-run single with two outs, and Jocy May followed with an RBI double to bring Burton across home plate as the early advantage grew to 4-0.

The Lady Pirates pushed a pair of runs across in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead in half.

However, the Lady Hornets struck for another three runs with two outs in the top of the fifth as May hit a two-run home run to left field and Camerin Davis came around to score on an error following a bunt single by Hazel Reed later in the frame to make it a 7-2 game.

The Lady Pirates loaded the bases on three straight walks to start the bottom of the fifth with an error scoring all three runners, and an RBI groundout by South Pittsburg’s next batter put the score at 7-6.

The Lady Hornets once again rebuilt their lead in the top of the sixth as Blair Finchum hit a leadoff single and came around to score off of an error on a bunt by Morris to get the scoring in the frame started.

After an intentional walk was issued to Ashtyn Danley, Hadley Gardner hit a two-run triple and was driven in a few pitches later by an RBI single off the bat of Burton to bring Huntland’s advantage up to 11-6.

The Lady Pirates scored one more time in the bottom of the sixth as a throwing error gave them a run to make it an 11-7 game late.

Gardner secured the Lady Hornets’ lead in the top of the seventh as she hit a two-out, two-run home run in the frame, and the Lady Pirates were held scoreless in the bottom half of the inning to clinch the win by six.

Kinah Mason pitched the first four innings for the Lady Hornets with two strikeouts, three hits and four runs allowed.

Burton closed out the final three innings in relief with one strikeout, four hits and three unearned runs allowed.

With the win, the Lady Hornets improved to 8-4 on the season.

They will next play Tuesday at Cornersville High School. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.