S

The Huntland High School Lady Hornets beat the Fayetteville Lady Tigers 22-7 on the road Thursday for their third win of the season.

The Lady Hornets overcame an early deficit to take control of the game in the middle innings and pulled away late for a blowout district victory.

Huntland head softball coach Michael Tipps said that his players did a good job of putting the ball in play and creating productive outs throughout the day.

“I tell them all the time, if you play a seven-inning game, there’s going to be 21 outs. What do you do with your 21 outs? There were two or three times tonight where we hit groundballs to the right side and got out, but because we put a ball in play and it wasn’t a strikeout, we were able to score a run from third,” he said. “We did a lot of productive things even when we had outs, and that’s why the game kind of got out of hand there toward the end.”

The Lady Tigers got off to a fast start offensively as a grand-slam home run gave them a 4-0 advantage in the bottom of the first.

However, the Lady Hornets flipped the scoreboard with a six-run frame in the top of the second as Natalynn Bolin hit into an RBI groundout, Lynsey Jakubowski recorded a two-run triple before later scoring off of a throwing error, and Emily Stewart hit a two-run single to make it a 6-4 game.

The Lady Tigers answered back by scoring two more runs in the bottom of the second to tie the score at 6-6 early.

After a scoreless third inning on both sides, the Lady Hornets retook the lead in the top of the fourth as an RBI double from Catara Johnson and an RBI single from Stewart put them in front by an 8-6 margin.

The Lady Hornets recorded three more runs in the top of the fifth to push the deficit up to 11-6 as Analyn Riddle scored off of a throwing error on a ball hit by Bolin, and Jakubowski and Millie Walker hit into consecutive RBI groundouts in the frame.

The Lady Hornets fully pulled away with an 11-run sixth inning as Aliza Hill, pinch-running for Kinah Mason, scored off of a throwing error on a ball hit by Riddle, Walker and Johnson recorded consecutive RBI singles, Jakubowski and Walker scored off of an error on a ball hit by Stewart, Johnson and Stewart scored off of an error after Mason put the ball in play, Peyton Counts and Bolin hit consecutive RBI singles, and Jakubowski contributed an RBI fielder’s choice to bring their lead up to 22-6.

The Lady Tigers scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth, but the Lady Hornets then got the last out they needed to trigger the mercy rule as they won by 15.

Mason pitched a complete game for the Lady Hornets with seven strikeouts, nine hits, one walk, four earned runs and three unearned runs allowed for the day.

With the win, the Lady Hornets improved to 3-6 on the season and 2-1 in district play.

They will next play Monday at home against Moore County High School. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.