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FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2020

SPORTS

The rivalry between the Le-roy Bears and Millry Wildcats is strong in every sport, but it has become especially competitive in recent seasons on the softball field. That tradition continued Tuesday night in a competitive, 3-2 walk-off victory for the Bears on their home field.

Leroy opened the scoring in the second inning, pushing across a run on a solo home run by Lau-ryn Dixon to start the bottom half of the inning. Millry responded in the third inning with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead. Caitlyn Gant delivered a one-out single for the Wildcats and another out later moved to third when a hard grounder by Reagan Tisdale was misplayed. Chesnee Clements then slapped a single that scored both Gant and Tisdale to put Millry in front.

Leroy tied the game at 2-all in the fifth inning, again on a lead-off solo home run, this time off the bat of Gracie Andrews. The game remained knotted 2-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh. Andrews led off the in-ning with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Beare Raley. With runners at second and third, Marissa West laid down a bunt but the Wildcats booted the play, allowing Andrews to score the game-winning run.

The Bears had just three hits in the game — the two solo home

The true measure of this year’s Fruit-dale baseball team won’t be found in its won-lost record, head coach Johnny Carpenter said. Instead, it will be found in the progress the team makes in its play from the start of the season to the final game.

As such, Carpenter isn’t placing a lot of emphasis on wins and losses, though he clearly prefers winning to losing. In-stead, he said he is watching the Pirates for the forward steps they are making as a team and individually with the hope that progress can be parlayed into more victories as the season progresses.

“We started out at the end of Janu-ary throwing the ball around a little bit and doing offseason throwing and

The Washington County baseball team played five games in recent days, winning a pair of games and dropping three decisions. The Bulldogs lost an 11-1 game to Clarke County but bounced back with a 9-7 win over Cottage Hill Christian. In a doubleheader against Fruitdale, the Bulldogs lost the first game 13-7 but came back to win the second game 11-1. Tuesday night, the Bulldogs lost an 18-1 decision to Wayne County, Miss.

Clarke County scored three runs in the second and third innings, then tacked on five runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth to run away with the victory. The Bulldogs managed just four total hits in the loss. Andrew Beech was 2 for 2, with Scotty Jones and Kasey Rainwater picking up one hit each.

A late-inning scoring spree lifted WCHS past Cottage Hill. The Bulldogs scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 9-1 lead, but that’s when the Warriors made their

move, scoring three runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to close the gap, though they were unable to overcome the deficit. Beech was 2 for 3 with one RBI, Sam Dumas was 2 for 4 with three RBI, Payton Ev-ans was 2 for 4 with one RBI and Trey Nader was 2 for 4 with a double and two RBI. Aus-tin Younge had a double. Evans pitched six innings, allowing 11 hits and four runs and striking out six. Hunter Singleton pitched one out in the seventh, allowing three hits and three runs, with Jones getting the final

two outs, one on a strikeout, without allowing a hit or run.

The loss to Fruitdale in the first game of the twin bill found the Pirates scoring in every inning, starting with two in the first, one in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth and fifth and three in the sixth and seventh. WCHS scored one in the second, two in the third and four in the fifth. Dumas was 2 for 4 with a double, two runs and two RBI.

STAFF REPORTwww.washcountynews.com

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The Wildcats of Millry col-lected two baseball victories in recent days in three games. They opened with a 7-3 win over Sweet Water, dropped a 16-3 decision to Wetumpka and followed with a 6-3 victory over Thomasville.

A four-run second inning got things started for Millry in its win over Sweet Water. The Wildcats added another run in the fifth and two more in the seventh. Sweet Water’s scoring came with a run in the first, third and seventh in-nings. Trey Lewis was 3 for 3 for the Wildcats, including a home run, double, two runs scored and one run batted in. Noah Whigham had two doubles, with Owen Hen-dry also getting a double. Tyler Lewis, Tristan Cooley and John Norton had one hit each. Whigham pitched from start to finish, regis-tering four strikeouts while allow-ing four hits and three runs over the seven innings.

In the loss to Mobile Christian the Leopards scored three in the first, five in the third , three in the fourth and five in the sixth. Millry produced all three of its runs in the third. Norton led the way at the plate with a double while Trey Lewis had a single and Tyler Lewis had a single and one RBI.

Millry moved quickly to put the game away against Thomas-ville, the Wildcats scoring a run in the second and third innings, with two runs in the fourth and fifth. Thomasville scored a run in the third, sixth and seventh innings. Tristan Cooley was 2 for 4 with one RBI, while Tate Warr was 2 for 4 and Whigham 2 for 3. Trey Lewis added a double while Ezekiel Turner had a single and one RBI and Lane Cooley had a single. Lane Cooley pitched six innings, allowing five hits and two runs and striking out six. Tyler Lewis pitched one inning, strik-ing out two and allowing one hit and one run.

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Leroy edges Millry 3-2in exciting softball duelBears beat Chapman with 2 HRs and walk-off bunt

Lauryn Dixon, Leroy’s 5-foot-11 senior standout, takes a mighty swing on a high fastball from Millry ace Crimson Chapman to launch a solo home run in the second inning Tuesday night. The Bears had just three hits against Chapman but managed to scrape out a 3-2 victory.

Photo by Marcus Gates/Clarke County Democrat

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Wildcats’ baseballers 2-1 on week

Shortstop Trey Lewis had key hits in three games played by the Wildcats in the week.

WCN fi le photo

Photo by Bonita Roberts/Washington County News

Fruitdale righthander Nicholas Williams fi res a pitch against Citronelle in action last week.

Pirates all about progressFruitdale baseball program taking steps to improve

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Washington County baseballers have busy week, going 2-3

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LEROY BOYS BOUNCE BACK WITH VICTORY/2B