EAST JACKSON had region-leading Franklin County on the ropes Tuesday night at home — then the fifth inning happened.
A 5-0 Eagle lead fell by the wayside as the Lions scored five runs that inning and then exploded for seven scores in extra innings as Franklin County won 12-5.
“The girls played extremely hard and made a lot of adjustments from yesterday’s game,” coach Brent Howell said. “We had a really good Franklin team on the ropes for the entire game but could not put them away.”
Alx Wheeler led the Eagles at the plate, going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Kristen Whitlock was 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI. Lauren Sanders and Kelsey Palette (1-for-4, double) also had RBIs.
Taylor Nix threw all eight innings for the Eagles, surrendering five earned runs, one walk and 13 hits. She struck out five.
“Our girls fought hard,” Howell said. “Our last several games are helping prepare us for the region tournament. I believe playing in these close games will help us build mental toughness. I feel like we played well most of the game but again a few mistakes defensively cost us but we are learning and improving.”
This was an important night beyond just softball. East Jackson hosted its first annual “Pink Out” to raise awareness for cancer awareness.
“We had a big crowd and the team was very excited,” Howell said.
The Pink Out was especially important to one East Jackson player — Beth Doss.
“(Tuesday’s) Pink Out gave us a great night to honor our first baseman Beth Doss, who is a cancer survivor,” Howell said. “We are blessed to have Beth still with us and her healthy enough to play the game of softball. We lose perspective a lot of times that it’s just a game and today allowed us to reflect on something much bigger than a game.”
•EAST JACKSON 8, WEST HALL 5: Pounding out 16 hits, East Jackson snapped a four-game losing skid with an 8-5 non-region win over West Hall Monday at home.
Beth Doss enjoyed a three-hit game with a double, two runs and one RBI, while six others enjoyed multi-hit games — Lauren Sanders (2-for-3, three runs), Kelsey Palette (2-for-3, two runs, RBI), Taylor Nix (2-for-3, two RBIs), Ashlie Wuertley (2-for-4, RBI), Brittany Nolan (2-for-4, two RBIs) and Alx Wheeler (2-for-3, run).
“We had better approaches at the plate,” East Jackson coach Brent Howell said. “We did a lot of the small things offensively to help us score a couple runs.”
Nix threw a complete game, allowing six hits, two walks and no earned runs to earn the win. She struck out seven batters.
“Taylor threw the ball well again,” Howell said. “She’s kind of been carrying us for a while.”
East Jackson led 5-0 after five innings before West Hall pushed across the unearned runs in the sixth.
“We just had a couple of lapses,” Howell said. “They were what, I call, kind of on cruise control.”
The Eagles added three insurance scores in the sixth. West Hall scored two more runs in the seventh.
•HART COUNTY 3, EAST JACKSON 2: Suffering through an offensive sluggish outing, East Jackson fell to 0-3 in region play with a 3-2 loss to Hart County Thursday at home.
East Jackson (5-6-1) was shutout over the first five innings and trailed 3-0 before rallying for scores in the sixth and seventh.
“I felt like we came out a little flat (Thursday) to start the game,” Howell said. “We didn’t make the adjustments that we needed to at the plate tonight but we will continue to work on our approach. We had our chances tonight to take the lead several times but just could not push across anything.”
East Jackson managed just four hits.
Nix went 1-for-1 with a double and RBI and also pitched seven innings. She surrendered four hits and three runs (only one earned), walked two and struck out eight.
Wheeler was 1-for-2, and Doss and Palette both went 1-for-3.
“We have to get better at doing the small things that help us win games,” Howell said. “We are still learning and working hard to get better. Ultimately, it’s about getting better every game with the main goal of playing our best softball at the region tournament.”
