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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PELHAM – The Pelham Panthers kept rolling with their fourth-straight victory as they prevailed from a defensive duel to pull away at the plate.

Pelham defeated the Pell City Panthers 3-1 on Thursday, March 6 at Pelham High School.

Early on, Blake Woodall settled into a strong form on the mound, overcoming a pair of one-out walks in the first inning to strike out four consecutive batters.

However, Pell City also regularly sat down Pelham batters throughout the first two innings and surrendered just one hit during that stretch.

Pelham broke through the deadlock with the first big hit of the game in the bottom of the third inning. Facing one out, Jett Hopwood ripped a triple to center to put the hosts in a strong position to capitalize.

Ryan Funderburk then worked through a 1-2 count to hit an RBI single and open up a 1-0 lead for Pelham.

Woodall then orchestrated a one-two-three top of the fourth to keep the momentum rolling into the home half of the frame.

Petrock got a lead-off hit off a 1-1 pitch to initially reach first, but he made it to second off an error by the pitcher on the catch.

Dylan Smith followed that up with another solid contact play that brought Petrock home and left himself on second thanks to an outfield error.

While the next batter struck out, a passed ball allowed Ryan Hurd to send Garin Fitts home and take the lead to 3-0 at the end of the inning.

Woodall then worked through a hitless fifth and sixth but faced a strong challenge in the seventh and final inning.

A lead-off double turned into an RBI single for Pell City to cut the deficit to 3-1 with no outs. However, Woodall recovered to get the final three outs on consecutive batters to end the threat and earn the win.