Thursday sports page: Lady Mavs even series with Lewisburg

The Lewisburg-Germantown (Madison) MHSAA 7A softball playoff series heads to a game three after the Lady Mavs came away with a 2-1 victory in eight innings Thursday night. The Germantown win came one night after Bailee Davis homered in the top of the seventh Wednesday to send game one into extra innings and a single by Cambell Kent scored Lindey Willhite to win the game in eight innings. 

It’s been what you might expect from a playoff series between two extremely talented teams.  

“The experience we have offensively and the pitching they have just made it 14 innings where we couldn’t figure it out,” said Lewisburg first-year coach Caleb Gilbert. “I think it’s just two really equal to equal teams.”

Thursday’s contest was a strong defensive and pitching duel between Lexi Edmiston of Lewisburg and Germantown’s Presly Cutrer and Mackenzie Donnell. Edmiston pitched the entire contest, allowing just one hit and nine strikeouts over eight innings, but she also hit three batters.  Donnell in particular was stellar for the Lady Mavs with one hit and two strikeouts over five innings.  

After a scoreless seven innings, the “runner on second” rule put J Ferguson on second to start the Germantown eighth. Ferguson scored the first run of the game on a single by Maggie Lindley, followed by what became the winning run when Breely Hill came home on a sacrifice fly.  

With the Lady Patriots at the plate, a Kara Walker single to center scored Leona-Klaire Stokes to get Lewisburg within 2-1. However, Ella Abrams hit into a ground ball double play that ended the contest in favor of the Lady Mavs.   

Lewisburg was also aided by five Germantown errors. Walker had the only multi-hit night for the Lady Patriots.  

Gilbert said striking first will be a big key to whoever wins game three.  

“We’ve got to get our leadoff hitter on base,” he said. “I think we did that in the first and in the eighth with the international tiebreaker, but we’ve got to get them on base.”

Game three will be at Madison but as of press time it was unclear if it will be played Friday or Saturday.  

Thursday, April 24

Prep baseball playoffs

MAIS 5AAAAA North first round (best of three)

• Magnolia Heights 10, Wayne Academy 0 (Magnolia Heights wins 2-0)
  • Magnolia Heights: Connor Edge throws complete-game no-hitter 

Prep softball playoffs

MHSAA 7A first round (best of three-game two)

• Germantown (Madison) 2, Lewisburg 1 (Series even 1-1)
  • Lewisburg: Kara Walker-2 hits, 1 RBI. Lexi Edmiston-8 IP, 1 hit, 9 strikeouts.
• Hernando 12, Tupelo 2 (Hernando wins 2-0)
  • Macie Dever-Boaz-3 runs, 2 hits, 1 RBI, homer. Madison York-homer, 1 run, 2 hits, 2 RBIs. Olivia Higginbotham-2 runs, 3 hits.

MHSAA 6A first round (best of three-game one)

• Neshoba Central 13, Center Hill 5 (Neshoba Central leads 1-0)

Prep softball – regular season

• Millington Central 9, Northpoint Christian 7

JUCO baseball

• Northwest 6, Itawamba 2
• Northwest 5, Itawamba 2

Prep soccer

• Evangelical Christian 2, Northpoint Christian 0

JUCO men’s tennis

Region 23 playoffs

• Northwest 5, Copiah-Lincoln 3

SPORTS ETC.: 

BULLDOGS TO HOST MEMPHIS IN STARKVILLE

The Mississippi State men’s basketball program announced the Bulldogs will take on Memphis on Saturday, Dec. 20 inside Humphrey Coliseum to complete a home-and-home series. State took down No. 21 Memphis, 79-66 last season at FedEx Forum, which marked the program’s largest road margin of victory over a ranked opponent in school history.