Thomasville’s Sam Wise hit a grand slam home run in the top of the second inning Thursday night to help lead the Tigers to a 12-7 area road victory over Andalusia.

“It’s good to get the first win in the series against Andalusia,” Thomasville coach Clint Anderson said.

Before Wise’s grand slam, Thomasville’s Brett Green scored on an RBI single from Zack Ross.

Wise sent Ross, Jay Williams and Charles Taylor home on the home run.

Right out of the gate, the Tigers scored four runs in the first inning on six hits and one walk.

Andalusia managed to get one run in in the second inning on an RBI single from Jay Brewer to score Zack Ward.

The score remained 9-1 until the fourth inning when Thomasville added one run on an RBI double from Wise.

The Bulldogs (12-15, 3-1 in Class 4A, Area 3) bounced back in the fifth and sixth innings scoring six runs to shrink Thomasville’s lead.

Andalusia’s Lee Enzor started the inning with a single and quickly made it to second base on a passed ball.

Then, Dilan Manring doubled to put runners on second and third.

Enzor made it home on a passed ball, and Manring scored on an RBI single from Nate Mack.

In the sixth inning, Andalusia put together four runs on six hits and no walks.

Brewer, Rob Maddox and Robert Woodall hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Shane Culbreth then hit an RBI single to score Brewer.

Enzor then reached on a single, Manring hit Woodall in, and Mack hit a two-run double to score Culbreth and Enzor.

Andalusia coach Jonathan Rasberry said he was proud of the way his team battled back late in the game.

“I thought we did a great job of hitting the ball,” Rasberry said about the fifth and sixth innings. “Our approaches were good, but I didn’t think we came up with a big hit the entire game. When you have 16 hits and eight runs, that’s kind of depressing. We were even on hits and we lost the game by five.

“We’ve just got to have somebody step up and get that big hit,” he added. “That’s something you’ve got to have leaders to do and right now, and we’re still trying to find out who those leaders are and who they aren’t.

“There’s a lot of positives to it, but when you miss routine fly balls and you make mistakes, it really hurts — especially with it being an area game,” he said. “I think a lot of it’s an intimidation factor and I think we came out here and knew that Thomasville was a decent team. They’ve got to go out there and play anyway and intstead of being timid, they’ve got to take control and that’s something I don’t think we did a very good job of. I think we let something happen to us instead of taking control of the situation.”

The Tigers (9-12, 2-1) scored one run in the fifth inning and one in the sixth on an RBI single from Tevin Watters and Sage Smoker, respectively.

Earlier in the game, Watters doubled Tevin Pope in the first inning of the game. Green and courtesy runner, Zatrix Taylor later scored on a 2 RBI triple from Charles Taylor.

To end the first inning, Wise scored Taylor to put Thomasville ahead 4-0 leading into the second inning.

Winning pitcher Jay Williams allowed seven hits, one walk, no runs and struck out four in three innings.

“(Andalusia) swing(s) the bats extremely well and we were just fortunate to get out of here with a win,” Anderson said. “We start all over again (tonight). We had a couple good innings early and held on for dear life in this one. Now, you’ve got to start right over again and hopefully pitch well, hit well, play good defense and swing the bats well. We’re going to see what happens.”

For Andalusia, Ward earned the loss allowing nine runs on nine hits and two walks in 1.2 innings.

On pitching, Rasberry said relief pitcher Aaron Norris did a good job.

“I thought Aaron Norris did a great job coming in and kind of stopping the bleeding,” he said. “He gave us a chance to come back and win that ball game.”

Norris had allowed eight hits, struck out five in 5.1 innings.

Thomasville’s Tevin Watters was 3-for-5; Brett Green was 3-for-5; Charles Taylor was 3-for-4; Sam Wise was 4-for-4; and Russ Wright was 2-for-4.

Andalusia’s Robert Woodall was 2-for-4; Lee Enzor was 3-for-4; Dilan Manring was 3-for-4; Nate Mack was 2-for-4; and Jay Brewer was 3-for-4.

The Bulldogs will travel to play Thomasville tonight in a doubleheader to complete their area series with the Tigers. The games start at 4 p.m.