Trip to Bay St. Louis big for Wildcats, Lady Cats, as both teams begin region play with wins
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By RUSSELL TURNER – Herald Editor
Greene County High School’s baseball and softball teams came up with big wins on Tuesday as both teams traveled to Bay St. Louis to kick off region play and both returned home with victories.
The Lady Wildcats scratched and clawed their way to a 4-0 win over Bay High thanks to some timely hitting in the late innings and a strong performance in the circle by Addie Tungett.
The Lady Cats’ junior ace went the distance, allowing just one hit along the way. Tungett struck out 10 on her way to the shutout, outdueling Bay High’s Bea Buice, who had a pretty good game herself.
In fact, Buice held the GCHS linuep in check for four innings, before senior Zamiah Knight jumpstarted the offense by driving a 3-2 pitch for a double to lead off the top of the fifth. Tungett did her part with a ground ball to second to push Knight to third. Senior Kambrie Lawrence grounded out to the third baseman, but drove in Knight for the RBI and the lead.
Senior Shanna Johnson followed with single and advanced to third when sophmore Amiyah Garrett hustled safely to first on a dropped third strike. The Lady Cat’s pushed the score to 3-0 as Johnson scored on a passed ball and Garrett followed on a RBI single by senior Riley Kate Byrd.
Greene County added an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Lawrence started the inning with a single to center field and advanced to third on another passed ball and a groundout by Johnson. Garrett fell behind 0-2, but battled out a gritty at-bat and pushed Lawrence across with a sacrifice fly to right field.
It looked like the Lady Cats might need that extra run after they suffered a dropped third strike, a hit batsmen and an infield error of their own to start the seventh. A Bay High baserunner was called out for leaving the base early and Tungett got a strikeout and a pop up to Johnson in left field to seal the win.
On the boy’s side, the Wildcats earned a 14-1 win in junior varsity action to start the evening. The varsity squad picked up right where the JV team left off, scoring four runs in the first inning to take control and adding eight more in the seventh to secure a 16-2 win.
GCHS hammered out 13 total hits with five Wildcats having multi-hit games. Greene County started the game with five straight hits and were up 6-1 midway through the second inning. They added single runs in the fourth and six frames and blew the game open with an 8-run seventh inning. Meanwhile, junior Kash Kittrell earned the complete-game win, scattering seven hits, striking out nine and giving up just one walk over seven innings of work.
Offensively, Kittrell had just one hit, but led his team with three RBIs. Juniors Eli Herring, Jackson Odom and Porter Miller each drove in two runs. Juniors Zaine Moody, Noah McLeod, Herring and Odom each had two hits, as did freshman Cam Pipkins, who was 2-for-2, with a double, 4 walks and a team-leading five runs scored.
GCHS will be back in action on Friday as the Tigers visit Scott Bray Field for game two of the 3-game series. They return to Bay St. Louis on Saturday for the season finale.
The Lady Wildcats will host Moss Point on Thursday in their second region matchup and follow that with a trip to Vancleave on Saturday to face off against their former coach, Kyle Long, who now leads the Lady Bulldogs’ program.
