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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PRATTVILLE – The Pelham Panthers finished their weekend tournament action at Prattville Christian Academy on a big high note with back-to-back wins over the T.R. Miller Tigers on Saturday, April 19.

Pelham defeated T.R. Miller 5-3 and 6-5 to sweep both legs of the short-notice doubleheader that came about after another tournament participant dropped out.

Those wins helped the Panthers recover from back-to-back losses to West Blocton on Thursday, April 17 and then a tournament-opening 8-3 loss to hosts Prattville Christian on Saturday.

Pelham faced an early deficit to the Tigers in game one when a one-out triple in the bottom of the first turned into a 1-0 lead off a wild pitch.

After a scoreless second, the Panthers responded with three-straight baserunners to start the third capped off by a two-run single from Carter for the 2-1 lead.

That quickly became a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Briley Easton got on second to start the inning, stole third and came home on a Rebecca Roy RBI ground out.

T.R. Miller got the benefit of a single and an error in the bottom half of the inning to set up an RBI double, which made it a one-run game.

Pelham quickly got Taylor Howard aboard with a single ahead of a Jordan Young walk. Emery Plunkett advanced both runners to scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.

From there, a Reese Jones ground out brought Howard home and Easton hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 5-2. Easton finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run.

The Tigers hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth, but it wouldn’t matter much as the Panthers took the 5-3 win.

Jones took the win with six strikeouts in six innings. Two of the three runs she face were earned and she survived seven hits and a walk to take the victory.

In the final game of the day, Pelham took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Plunkett hit a two-out RBI single to score Howard from first.

However, a lead-off walk for T.R. Miller in the start of the second set up a two-run home run that gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

After a Panthers pitching change, T.R. Miller drew a walk and came home before the end of the inning for the 3-1 advantage.

Pelham cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning. Roy got hit by a pitch with one out and came home two batters later off an Eva Lee RBI single.

The next two innings came and went without a run before the Tigers dealt a big blow in the top of the fifth. A walk and a double to start the inning put two in scoring position ahead of an RBI single which made it a 5-2 ball game.

The Panthers couldn’t respond in the bottom of the fifth but made their move in the sixth. With Easton and Jones on and one out, Roy singled to center to cut the gap to 5-3.

Carter cleared the rest of the bags in emphatic fashion with a two-run triple, tying the game up at 5-5 in the process. After a T.R. Miller pitching change, Eva Lee finished off the comeback with an RBI single to take a 6-5 lead.

Jones then worked a one-two-three inning in the top of the seventh to cap a strong relief effort. She got the win by pitching the final six innings, earning six strikeouts against three runs, four hits and three walks.

Eva Lee finished 2-for-3 with two RBI while Howard was 2-for-3 with a run.