The Straughn Tigers fought back to tie the game late, but fell 9-8 on Monday morning to W.S. Neal in the first day of the 2017 Butch Youmans Spring Break Tournament in Opp.

W.S. Neal got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning, but Straughn took advantage of an error and timely hits to go up 4-1 in the top of the second inning.

W.S. Neal then went on top 8-4.

In the top of the fifth inning, Hank Peeples got things going with a single.

The Tigers inched closer when Clay Ashberry sent a line drive to center for a single to cut the W.S. Neal lead down to 8-6.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, W.S. Neal’s leadoff batter reached after being hit by a pitch and moved around to third on a single from Jacoby Hawthorne.

Matt Worley cut the deficit to one run when he drove in Trystian Barber on a fielder’s choice.

Ashberry then tied the game with a line drive single through the left side of the infield that scored Hudson.

Worley then picked up a strikeout to end the bottom of the sixth.

The Tigers got a leadoff single from Adam Anderson to start the top of the seventh inning, but he was then caught trying to steal second.

In the bottom of the seventh, W.S. Neal’s first batter reached on a walk before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Straughn picked up the second out on a pop up to third base before loading up the bases with an intentional walk and a hit batter.

W.S. Neal then picked up a base hit to left field to drive in the winning run.

“The good thing was that we got to play a lot of young guys and see what they could do,” Straughn head coach Daniel Rodgers said. “We had an eight grader, Chandler Mitchell, behind the plate and had a few ninth graders in the field. The guys really fought hard and I hate that I ran us out of the inning in the top of the seventh. I’m learning from things like that. These kids played hard and they never quit, and for that I’m really proud of the them.”