Lady Blue Devils whip John Carroll, 7-2

By Johnny Sanders Sports Editor

MOODY – After starting the season with 4 straight losses, the Moody Blue Devils softball team looked to get things on track this week. They got the ball rolling, so to speak, against JB Pennington on Monday with a 13-0 thrashing of the Tigers. The encore for the week was a 7-2 victory over the John Carroll Cavaliers on Tuesday evening.

inning, scored by Kevin Jones who was pinch running for Gillespie. In the fourth, Moody would get their lone run from a Chase Marshall home run on a 2-0 pitch from Gillespie.

Bryant Hardin had 9 strike outs but allowed 5 hits in 4 innings of play for the Blue Devils. Colby Graves came in for the final two innings of the game in relief.

For Springville, left-hander Brady Gillespie allowed just 3 hits and one run in four innings, striking out two batters. Kade Willis came in to relieve him, throwing the final two innings. Springville is now 3-2 and will play their next game at home against Moody. Moody finds itself 3-1 heading to Pell City on Wednesday.

Moody got all 3 Cavalier batters out in the first inning before stepping to the plate themselves, behind the pitching of Bella Turley. John Carroll walked the first two Moody batters, Alex Harvard and Kennedy Hockman before Kendall Trimm laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third. Libby Higgins struck out and then Taylor Rogers hit a pop fly that resulted in a John Carroll error, driving in Harvard and putting runners at the corners. H Forester would get walked to load the bases, but Abi Gray grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning at 1-0.

After 2 scoreless innings in the second and third, the Moody bats woke up and the Blue Devils put 5 runs on the scoreboard. Forester and Gray got on base, each with singles to start off the inning. John Carroll got the next two batters out before walking Harvard. Hockman hit a single up the middle and brought Gray home. Now Moody had 2 runners on as Trimm approached the plate. After watching 2 balls and fouling one off, Trimm crushed the ball over the left field wall to bring everyone in and put Moody up 6-0 over the Cavaliers. John Carroll scored 2 runs in the sixth to close the gap a bit, but Moody would put another run on the board to secure the 5-point win. The 2-game winning streak improves the Blue Devils from 0-4 to 2-4 and gives them some momentum as they head into a rematch with the team that started this streak for them, JB Pennington, on Monday.

Springville softball blow out Pelham, continue dominant season

By Johnny Sanders Sports Editor

SPRINGVILLE – The Springville Lady Tigers are having quite the season early on, winning their first 6 games of the season, most of those by large margins, with the closest game being a season-opening win at Saint Clair County 4-2. The Tigers beat Pleasant Grove on their field on February 24th by a score of 5-0 and after that, all of the other games have been double-digit wins for Springville. Tuesday evening was no different, as they welcomed the Pelham Panthers to Springville and whipped them 14-1.

Springville started the scoring early by putting 2 hits on the board in the first inning. In her first at-bat, Bella Bullington hit a single that would drive in both runs.

Over the next two innings, the Tigers would rack up 7 more runs to make it 9-0 after just three innings. The fourth inning would be the most productive for Springville, scoring 5 runs to complete the 14-point effort over Pelham.

Bullington was the winning pitcher for Springville, throwing 2 innings and allowing two hits and no runs while striking out two and walking none. Georgia Chan-