Brantley uses big fifth to take down Lady Bulldogs
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 16, 2017
The Brantley Lady Bulldogs used a big fifth inning to defeat the Andalusia Lady Bulldogs 9-0 on Tuesday afternoon at the Dwight Mikel Sports Complex.
Andalusia pitcher Sydney Ray gave up a one-out single in the top of the first inning, but got the next two batters out to retire the side.
Millie Manring got a two-out single in the bottom of the first, but Andalusia was unable to move her anywhere.
The game remained scoreless heading in to the bottom of the second inning as Ray sat Brantley down in order with a strikeout and a pair of pop ups.
Andalusia got a one-out single from Ray in the bottom of the second, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning.
Ray worked around a leadoff single in the top of third inning to keep the game tied 0-0.
In the top of the fourth inning after two quick groundouts, Andalusia committed back-to-back errors and gave up a walk to load up the bases with Brantley Lady Bulldogs.
The next Brantley batter sent a line drive to center that was snagged by Haley Harper to keep the game scoreless.
Brantley broke onto the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning after a one-out double gave them a little life.
Following the double, the next Brantley batter sent a rocket back up the middle of the diamond that struck Ray in the hand. The ball hit Ray and landed far enough away to allow Brantley to bring around the first run of the game.
The line drive off Ray knocked the young pitcher out of the game and opened up the floodgates for a Brantley scoring attack. X-rays from Ray’s hand came back negative.
“She took a pretty good line drive off the wrist,” Andalusia head softball coach Anthony Mikel said. “We thought it was broken at first, but it’s not. She will still be out for a week or so.”
By the time the dust settled and Andalusia went to bat in the bottom of the fifth, Brantley had broken the game wide open with a 7-0 lead.
Two more runs for Brantley in the top of the sixth inning helped give them a 9-0 victory.