Lady Mustangs Romp past Lady Tigers

Slocum Takes Down Neches, 12-0

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

NECHES – The Slocum Lady Mustangs hit the road on Monday, March 26 to take on the Neches Lady Tigers.  The two teams were tied for second place in District 21-AA with identical 4-1 records.

The Lady Mustangs had relied on the pitching of Jalyn Fletcher in the first half of the district season while the Lady Tigers had pinned their hopes on Josey Sumpter.

When the Lady Tigers took the field, however, Sumpter was not in the pitcher’s circle. Jayci Mannix got the start for Neches and the Lady Mustangs took full advantage of the pitching change.

Fletcher led off with bunt single and then stole second. She came around to score on a Jessi Ives single. Ives crossed the plate on Kara Cumby’s grounder and just like that it was 2-0 in favor of the Lady Mustangs.

While Sumpter was not in the lineup for Neches, Fletcher was the pitcher of record for Slocum – and she was lights out. She retired the first two batters she faced, gave up a meaningless double to MacKenzie Hudson and then got Mannix to fly out to end the inning.

Slocum tacked on another run in the top of the second when Shelby Bowman led off with a walk and made her way around the base paths on  a steal and a groundout from Laney Lasiter to make the score 3-0.

After Fletcher retired the Lady Tigers in the bottom of the inning, Slocum added three more runs in the top of the third.

Ives was hit by a pitch to lead off the frame and raced home on Cumby’s double to center. Shelby followed with a bunt single to move Cumby to third and when Jamie Jackson doubled into the left centerfield gap, both Cumby and Jackson crossed the plate to give the Lady Mustangs a 6-0 lead.

Fletcher worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the third and then got things started for Slocum in the top of the fourth.

Lexi Rogers came on in relief of Mannix and Fletcher greeted her with a single up the middle. She stole second, as well as third, and then trotted home on a Courtney January groundout. Ives was up next and tripled into deep right field.

Following a Taylor Clark liner for the first out of the inning, Briley Evers knocked in Ives with a shot to left to make the score 8-0.

That was all the offense until the top of the seventh when the Lady Mustangs added four more runs to their total and then held off the Lady Tigers to win the game by a final score of 12-0.

Fletcher picked up the win for Slocum in seven innings of work. She threw 94 pitches, gave up six hits and struck out five.

Mannix took the loss after she pitched three innings. She gave up six runs on seven hits, struck out two and walked one. Rogers pitched four innings in relief and gave up six runs on eight hits.

At the plate, Fletcher went 3-5 and scored two runs, while Ives was 2-4 with one RBI and three runs scored.

Neches was led by Gracey Carroll who was 2-3 at the dish.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

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