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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PELHAM – The Pelham Panthers continued their improved form over the last few weeks with a 3-1 stint at their own Pelham Spring Break Tournament.

Hosting multiple teams at Pelham High School on March 28 and 29, Pelham defeated the Russellville Golden Tigers 8-0, Arkansas’ Marion Patriots 2-1 and the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers 6-2.

The Panthers’ lone loss of the weekend was a 3-1 defeat to Arkansas’ Carlisle Bison on Saturday as they improved to 8-10 with the victories.

Pelham started off its tournament with a matchup against Russellville and took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Laini Stewart stole second and third after drawing a lead-off walk, and that set her up to come home off a Jordan Young sacrifice fly.

That lead became 3-0 in the bottom of the third when Young drove home another run before a Reese Jones RBI single.

The Panthers continued to rally in the bottom of the fourth after getting hit by a pitch to keep the inning alive. Taylor Howard plated another run with an RBI single before Young loaded up the bases with a single of her own. Young finished 1-for-2 with two RBI and two runs.

Emery Plunkett was then plunked by a pitch to drive a run home, and a pair of errors led to three more runs reaching home plate for the 8-0 lead.

Pelham finished off the shutout win by keeping Russellville scoreless in the top of the fifth.

Jones took the win in the circle, striking out eight Golden Tigers across five shutout innings while allowing one hit and no walks.

In Pelham’s second game of the tournament against Marion, the Patriots started out the game in front after a pair of singles to start the first gave way to a run off an error.

That 1-0 lead held all the way through the end of the fourth even as both teams earned hits to try and get momentum going on the base paths.

However, an error and a walk to start the bottom of the fifth gave the Panthers an opportunity to strike in their last chance to do so.

Stewart went to steal third, and after the throw from the catcher missed, she came home to tie the game at 1-1 and force a sixth inning. She finished 2-for-3 with a run.

Rebecca Roy reached off a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the sixth and stole second and third to allow Lee to bring her home on a sacrifice bunt for the walk-off.

Young earned the win with seven strikeouts in six innings, working around one unearned run, three hits and a walk to leave without a run charged to her docket.

After a 3-1 loss to Carlisle to begin Saturday, Pelham got off to a strong start at the plate against John Carroll.

Two of Pelham’s first three batters in the top of the first reached freely off a walk and a hit by pitch, and that set up a two-run double from Plunkett followed by an RBI triple from Eason for the 3-0 lead.

However, each of the first five Cavs reached base in the bottom of the first. During that sequence, John Carroll hit back-to-back RBI singles to cut the deficit to 3-2, but the Panthers got out of the inning with the lead.

That was the last of the Cavs runs as Pelham pulled away for the victory.

Taylor Howard kicked off the third inning in an emphatic way with a solo home run to take the lead to 4-2.

Then, with two outs in the top of the fourth, Lee brought Jones home from third with an RBI single to make it a 5-2 game.

A Jones RBI ground out in the top of the fifth finished off the 6-2 win for the Panthers.

Plunkett led the team with two RBI as she went 1-for-2 with a walk and a run.

Jones took the win after going the distance, striking out seven and allowing just two runs off six hits and five walks.

Pelham will return to action on Tuesday, April 1 at 4:30 p.m. for a road game at Chilton County ahead of Wednesday’s area rivalry game with Helena at 4:30 p.m. at Helena High School.