PHS claims 8-inning win
Published 11:59 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Lady Eagles’ defense came up with a big double play to help key their 4-3 win over Andalusia Tuesday afternoon.
Tied 3-3 in the top of the eighth inning, Pleasant Home’s Kati Reeves caught a bunt and then threw to shortstop Brittany Ward, who tagged out Andalusia’s Erica Staley to stop the Lady Bulldogs from scoring and taking the lead.
In the next inning, Pleasant Home’s Gina Davis hit an RBI single to score Raven Woods, who was on second base due to the international rule.
In spite of the win, Pleasant Home coach Jimmy Reeves said the team looked a little “flat.”
“We just talked about the fact that we’re not a good enough team to play a flat game and beat people,” Reeves said. “We’re very very fortunate to win that game. We did just enough to win.
“After we played so well (Monday) and come back and the way we played today, it was kind of disappointing,” he said. “We got a win and sometimes you’ve got to win ugly and we’re proud of that. Anytime you can beat Andalusia, you’ve got to be happy.”
The No. 2 Lady Eagles (25-8) got on board first in the third inning when Erin Byrd hit an RBI triple to score Robyn Weaver, before Reeves hit an RBI single to score Byrd.
Andalusia (15-14) managed to score in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Jessica Centner, who scored Paige Caraway to make it 2-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Pleasant Home’s Megan Cook scored on a passed ball to push the lead to 3-1.
The score remained 3-1 until the sixth inning when Andalusia’s Megan Pugh hit a sacrifice fly to score Samantha Greene.
Caraway hit an RBI single to bring Jessica Park home to tie the game up, 3-3.
Andalusia coach Anthony Mikel said the defense played well Tuesday.
“We played pretty good on defense,” Mikel said. “We had a couple of errors, but we still didn’t hit as well as I’d hope for or score as many runs as I wanted to.”
Mikel added that it was a back and forth game against Pleasant Home.
“They went up and we tied again,” he said. “It was a tough contest. I was pleased with the heart of our players. They played hard.”
Reeves said the areas that were lacking included focus and the overall hustle of the team.
“You can tell when a team is flat and this one was pretty easy to read,” he said. “We’ve been working really hard and that’s something that has to do with it. Possibly it was also a little bit of over-confidence. Maybe that will bring us back down to earth.”