By Michael Lindsay
The District 7-3A softball tournament resumed action on Monday at DeKalb County High School as #2 Stone Memorial Lady Panthers defeated Livingston Academy in the winners’ bracket.
Freshman pitcher Kenzie Jackson struck out 10 batters while surrendering only 2 hits and 1 walk in 7 innings of shutout softball.
“I cannot say enough about our defense and Kenzie in the circle,” said Stone Memorial head coach Brittany Bilbrey. “She worked ahead and her defense picked her up. Our defense has to be consistent if you want to give yourself a chance.”
Stone Memorial got on the board in the bottom of the first inning via a Cadence Cox double to score Cami Holbrook. The Lady Panthers tacked on another run in the bottom of the third as a Jackson sacrifice fly scored Ashley Whittenburg, giving Stone Memorial a 2-0 lead after three innings.
“We had some good situational hitting and just put the ball in play,” said Bilbrey. “We were tenacious at the plate and refused to let go good pitches go by.”
The Lady Panthers tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as Karlie Overly delivered a two-out single to center, scoring Scarlett Smithson and Lexy McDonald to take a 4-0 lead. Stone Memorial closed out from there to win by a 4-0 final score.
Tournament action resumes Tuesday afternoon at DeKalb County at 3 p.m. with Livingston and Upperman playing an elimination game at 3 p.m. DeKalb County will face White County at 5:30 with the loser playing Cumberland County in an elimination game at 7:30.
The winner of DeKalb County/White County is scheduled to face Stone Memorial on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
