After having more than a week off due to rain outs and postponed games, the Lady Tigers were back in action with three big region games last week. Unfortunately, Swainsboro dropped the first two games of the week when they traveled to Dodge County and Vidalia. The Lady Tigers, however, rebounded Thursday afternoon with a big come-from-behind win over the Lady Irish of Dublin High School in their first game back at the newly renovated Lady Tiger softball field.
It was an extremely hot and humid summer afternoon, but the players, coaches, administrators, and the crowd were all excited to finally host a home game at Swainsboro High School. Due to the renovations, it had been 11 months since the Lady Tigers had played a game on their home field. Not only had they not played a game on their field all season, but they had also not practiced or even stepped onto the new field until warm-ups just before the game. As a matter of fact, contractors were still putting the finishing touches on dugout benches and bullpen fences just hours before the first pitch. Shortly before game time, everyone was welcomed to the field by principal Rob Gray and Swainsboro’s five senior softball players threw out the ceremonial “first pitch”.
When the game got underway, Dublin jumped out to an early 4-1 lead. Swainsboro responded with two runs in the bottom of the third inning and two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 5-4 lead. Dublin then strung together four singles in the top of the sixth inning which produced two runs and gave the Lady Irish a 6-5 lead.
Things were still far from over in this back-and-forth game. Left-fielder Kabreigh Hostilo got things going in the bottom of the sixth inning for the Lady Tigers with a single which was followed by a double off the bat of second baseman Mylie Beneteau. With runners at second and third base, the Dublin head coach then elected to walk Anna Grace Scarborough to load the bases, create the possibility of a force out at every base, and bring Jennifer Hernandez to the plate. Hernandez, at that point, had been held hitless in the game. In theory, the move made lots of sense but on that particular day it didn’t work out too well for the Irish. As you know, clutch players come through in big moments. Hernandez stepped into the batter’s box and promptly drove the first pitch she saw deep to left field fence for a double and two RBI. Catcher Sara Smith then provided a much-needed insurance run with an RBI ground out which extended the Lady Tiger lead to 8-6.
But wait! The fun still wasn’t over. Dublin proceeded to load the bases in the top of the seventh inning which made the home crowd extremely nervous. At that point, coach Alicia Hendrix called on relief pitcher Ashlyn Turner. Turner came into the game and slammed the door shut on the Lady Irish to preserve the 8-6 win for the Lady Tigers. A. G Scarborough went the first six and two-thirds innings in the circle to pick up the win and Turner picked up the save with her bases loaded strikeout to end the game. Swainsboro collected 11 hits on the evening and were led by A. G. Scarborough, Kyleigh Hostilo, Kabreigh Hostilo, and Mylie Beneteau who all had two hits in the game.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action on Wednesday September 9th at Wheeler County at 5:30pm and then back at home against Bleckley County on Thursday September 10th at the newly renovated field at Swainsboro High School.
