By Michael Shipma

After falling behind 6-1 in the second inning, the Pike County High School softball team clawed its way back into things to come away with a 7-6 win over Elba High School on Tuesday night at home.

The Lady Bulldogs were led by freshman pitcher Brooke Bennett, who not only scored the winning run for the home team, but also recorded a three-strikeout performance that helped keep the Tigers scoreless in the final five innings.

Bennett and Pike County’s defense kept the visitors off the score board in the opening inning, setting up an unearned run at the bottom of the inning from freshman Precious Vaznaian.

Elba bounced back in a big way, however, bringing in five runs in the second inning. Barely into the inning and with no outs, the Tigers had the bases loaded, looking to take an early lead. That’s exactly what they did, with a pair of unearned runs off walks, and a pair of two-run RBI doubles from juniors Timasia Tillis and Garian Ware.

Those runs put the visitors up 6-1 and along with solid pitching from Elba, looked to be the nail in the coffin for Pike County early on.

After a scoreless third inning, the Bulldogs plated two runs to cut the deficit to three, highlighted by sophomore Mercedes Harvis brining in a run with an RBI single to right field.

Pike County added to their tally in the following inning, with senior Laken Maulden and Bennett both recording RBI’s to bring the score even at six runs apiece after five innings.

Headed into the bottom of the final inning, and the game still tied, Bennett crushed a pitch to the left field wall for a triple that put her in scoring position with only one out. Two batters later, freshman Graci Williams hit a well-placed bunt that brought in the game-winning run.

“This was a good home win for us,” head coach Fawn Simms. “We’re going through some growing pains since we have so many young athletes, and had a rough week at PCA against some strong competition. We needed to come back home and make some adjustments and get a couple wins to get our confidence back and we did just that.”

The Bulldogs return to action on Friday when they participate in the Terry Collins Memorial Tournament.