Pearl River splits on first day of Wildcat Invitational
POPLARVILLE, Miss. — Pearl River continued to swing a hot bat on Day 1 of the annual Wildcat Invitational on Friday. The Lady Wildcats racked up 16 runs on 17 hits and nine extra-base hits to split the day's games. PRCC beat Marion Military Institute 7-3 in the opener before falling to LSU-Eunice 17-9 in five innings.
PEARL RIVER 7, MARION MILITARY INSTITUTE 3
Brooke Fagan (Kiln; Hancock) flashed her athleticism to score the game’s first run in the third inning. Marion Military Institute’s first baseman snagged a line drive down the run but her attempt to double up a PRCC runner at second base sailed into shallow center field, allowing Fagan to race home from third.
PRCC added two runs in the fourth on a Jordan Lee (Redwood; Tri-County) single up the middle with the bases loaded. The hit scored Elizabeth Taggard (Picayune) and Neely McLeod (Lucedale; George County).
The Lady Wildcats blew the door open in a four-run sixth courtesy of a two-run double by Alyssa Pinero (Picayune) that scored Krista Robles (Destrehan, La.) and Jenna Smith (D’Iberville), an error off the bat of Jenna Comeaux (Lafayette, La.; Comeaux) that scored Pinero and an Autumn Clark (Runnelstown; Perry Central) double that scored Comeaux.
Taggard and Comeaux led PRCC with two hits apiece.
Grace Stringer (Moselle; South Jones) picked up her second win in as many starts, striking out five while allowing one unearned run in six innings. Gracie Barnett (Vancleave) struck out two in the seventh.
“Grace Stringer got out there and pitched well for a second straight game. We hit the ball well and got after them,” PRCC coach Leigh White said. “We battled it out, made things happen and capitalized on some of their errors. Hey, a win is a win and we’re going to take it.”
LSU-EUNICE 19, PEARL RIVER 9
PRCC showed a lot of heart in the second game, continuing to swing the bats despite a large deficit.
BreAnna Corkern (Watson, La; Live Oak) doubled over the left field wall in the second to score Mary Grace Turner (Leakesville; Greene County) and break the shutout, 5-1.
Comeaux gave PRCC fans a reason to cheer in the bottom of the third when she hit her second homer of the young season, a no-doubter over the left field wall that scored Hannah Rasberry (Lucedale; George County).
Corkern came up big again in the fourth, this time doubling to right-center to score Taggard and Clark. The two-run double brought PRCC within 11 at 16-5.
The Lady Wildcats went yard in back-to-back at-bats in the bottom of the fifth thanks to Comeaux and Turner. The round-trippers pulled PRCC within 10, 17-7. Lee then worked a bases-loaded walk to get PRCC under the run rule threshold. A Fagan groundout pushed across PRCC’s fourth run of the frame.
“The positive out of this game is we kept fighting and didn’t give up. The one inning where they scored nine runs was the difference in the ballgame,” White said. “We scored every inning except for the first.”
Comeaux (pictured) finished the game 2-for-3 with a team-high three RBIs.
“That kid gets in the box and is ready to hit. I would hate to pitch to her,” White said. “She has a lot of power and has embraced her role.”
Rylee Swilley (Kiln; Hancock), Dallas Blaker (Bay St. Louis; Our Lady Academy), Brianna Hargrove (Oakdale, La.), Robles and Barnett all pitched for PRCC.
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