With a brief reprieve from the rain, Bradwell Institute and Liberty County High School were able to play at the Battle of the ‘Boro softball tournament over the weekend where. The Lady Tigers took home the bronze division championship and the Lady Panthers continued to show improvement.
The Bradwell girls finished 3-5 overall event though they had to battle some very tough opponents. According to coach Sharyl Eastlake and assistant coach Jeff Eastlake, the girls had to fight from the get-go playing the Savannah Christian Raiders in game one. The Raiders are coming off a spectacular 21-11-1 overall and 9-1 region record last season. And the Lady Raiders already have a 5-1 mark this year.
The Lady Tigers were able to keep the Raiders from running up the score but fell 4-0 in timed play. In the second pool game the girls went up against Statesboro, winning 10-6. On Saturday morning the BI girls played their final pool game and lost to Screven County 12-5.
That placed the Lady Tigers in the bronze division bracket as the top seeded team and the girls were immediately challenged by Lakeside Evans.
According to Eastlake, what happened next was one of the most thrilling comebacks she ever witnessed from her team. The Lady Tigers trailed 11-0 in the bottom of the third inning of timed play. The girls dug deep and rallied, scoring 12 runs to beat Lakeside Evans 12-11.
“We never gave up,” Eastlake said. “I could not be more proud of the girls than I am after their performance in this tournament. Battling back from an 11-0 deficit is an awesome feat for any team. Our team motto is Concentration and Intensity. Saturday they lived by that motto.”
Surfing on that wave of intensity the girls then capped off a 4-0 win against Swainsboro for the bronze division trophy.
The leading hitters for the tournament were Kasey Smith with eight hits and seven RBIs; Kelissa Hargrove had five hits and five RBIs; Shaquira Smith  had four hits and two RBIs; Courtney Felton and MacKenzie Stewart  each had three hits and  three RBIs.
MacKenzie Stewart pitched 13 2/3 innings and won two games. Sarah Wells tossed five innings and won a game, and Kasey Smith threw five innings.
The Lady Tigers are currently 7-5 overall and 1-1 in Region 3B-AAAAA.
Lady Panther coach Jerome Standard said he continues to see improvement from his young squad. After losing their first four games in the tournament, the Lady Panthers (2-9) knocked off Statesboro, 14-6.
Standard said the win against Statesboro was a huge boost “I was very pleased with the progress that we’ve made. The kids are responding and, as a whole, the team is getting a lot better,” Standard said. “Although we only got one win, it was against Statesboro who is in our region and we play them next Wednesday.”
Liberty is currently 2-9 overall.
The Lady Tigers game at Jenkins last week was rescheduled to Sept. 21 due to rain. The girls were set to be in Brunswick yesterday to take on Glynn Academy and will host Ware County tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Liberty was scheduled to host Long County yesterday and will host Statesboro next Wednesday at 5 p.m.