Lady Rebels Last to Second Round: Panthers Pounce with “Sweet Sixteen Sweep”

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The Fannin County High School Lady Rebels’ softball season came to a close in the second round of the state playoffs. The second seeded Lady Rebels traveled to Jackson County to take on the first seeded Lady Panthers in a best of three series. The Lady Panthers pounced on the Lady Rebels, sweeping Fannin out of the “Sweet Sixteen” round 2-0.Fannin was forced to face Jackson without the help of senior pitcher, Lauren Hensley, due to her breaking her nose in practice the previous day. The absence of Hensley forced Jace Armstrong to pitch the entirety of the series.

Game one began with Fannin’s first score in the first inning. Karly Thompson’s RBI sac fly to right field scored Missy Dixon in the top of the inning to give the Lady Rebels a 1-0 lead headed into the bottom of the first.

The lead was short lived as the Panthers pounced on an error on a pick off attempt to steal home and tie the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first.

Armstrong led of the top of the second with a walk when she was struck by a pitch. She eventually came home after Jackson committed an error while trying to pick off Katie Brown.

The 2-1 lead held until the bottom of the sixth when a base clearing triple tied the game 2-2. Fannin failed to mount any offense in the top of the seventh, despite Brown leading off with a ground ball single to center field.

A fly out followed by a double play ended the Lady Rebels’ scoring threat in three batters. After the first two bottom of the seventh Jackson batters went down on consecutive ground outs, a walk put a woman on first. A walk off RBI double immediately followed, and Jackson walked off with a game one 3-2 victory, and 1-0 series lead.

Game two started after a short hiatus, with Fannin being the “home team” and procuring the last at bat. The Lady Rebels again took the lead early in the first inning.

An RBI sac fly from Thompson scored Dixon giving the Lady Rebels a 1-0 lead heading into the top of the second inning.

The Lady Panthers picked up the pace and the lead in the top of the third. An RBI single tied the game, 1-1. Home was stolen on a pass ball, to give the Jackson the lead, 2-1. An RBI sac ground out followed by an RBI single gave the Lady Panthers a 4-1 lead headed into the bottom of the third.

Candace “Blitzkrieg” German brought some thunder in the third, with a standing RBI double that scored Josie Millsaps and cut the lead to 4-2.

Karly “Thunderstick” Thompson followed German’s double by adding one more to her, single season school record,home run total with a two run blast that tied the game 4-4. Brown added two more runs in the inning with a two run single that scored Amy Mintz, and Ali Barfield.

Fannin’s 6-4 lead held until the top of the fifth when an RBI almost double made the score 6-5. Dixon tagged the runner out before she could reach second.

The Panthers continued to pour on the offense in the top of the sixth, scoring two more runs to take a 7-6 lead, that lasted until the top of the seventh. Much to the Fannin faithful’s chagrin, the Panthers packed on two more runs in the top of the seventh to take a 9-6 lead halfway through the game’s last inning.

Mintz led off in the bottom of the seventh with a single to left field. Barfield followed with a double to center field that put women on second and third.

Following a Fannin strike out, Brown’s RBI sac ground out scored Mintz, moved Barfield over to third, and cut the lead to two, 9-7. However, a final Fannin fly out sealed the season’s end with a “Sweet Sixteen” sweep of the Lady Rebels.

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