Softball teams advance through area tournament

Several Marion County softball teams are headed to regionals this week after advancing through their area tournaments last week.

Marion County & Brilliant
The Marion County Red Raiders were the 1A Area 12 champions.
They kicked off the Area 12 tournament by defeating the Brilliant Lady Tigers 15-0 on Monday, May 1, in the first round.
Also in the first round, the Hubbertville Lady Lions lost a close game 11-10 to Lynn, who advanced to take on the Raiders later that afternoon.
The Lady Red Raiders soundly defeated the Lynn Bears 16-4, but when they played again the next day, Lynn was able to turn the tide and win 15-12.
Now tied with one win each against each other, the two teams played one final game on Tuesday, and this time it would be the Raiders standing victorious with an 11-1 victory for the title of 1A Area 12 champions.
After their loss in the first round, the Brilliant Tigers took on Hubbertville in the losers’ bracket. The Tigers were defeated, and the Lions would move on to fall to the Bears, which is how they earned their spot back in the final round.

Hackleburg & Phillips
The Hackleburg Lady Panthers and the Phillips She Bears played in the 1A Area 13 tournament.
In the first round, the Bears faced off against the Belgreen Lady Bulldogs, and the Lady Panthers were up against the Vina Red Devils.
The Bears fell to Belgreen 15-0, but the Panthers cast out the Red Devils by the same score.
In the second round, Phillips was knocked out of the tournament 12-0 by Vina.
Hackleburg played Belgreen the next day, and won 5-0.
In the second game of the loser’s bracket, the Bulldogs kept themselves in the tournament by driving the Red Devils out of the tournament with an 11-0 victory.
The Bulldogs kept the momentum going with a narrow 4-3 win over the Lady Panthers, and gained even more steam in the final game, defeating the Lady Panthers 12-1.
The Lady Panthers ended the tournament as the 1A Area 13 runners-up, and advanced to regionals.

Winfield
The Winfield Lady Pirates also made it through the 3A Area 12 Tournament as runners-up.
In the first round, the hosting Carbon Hill Lady Bulldogs treed the Phil Campbell Bobcats 15-0, and the Lady Pirates defeated the Colbert Height Wildcats 3-1.
In the losers’ bracket, the Wildcats held on to their spot in the tournament with a win over the Bobcats.
Up next in the winners’ bracket, the Lady Pirates lost 1-0 to the Bulldogs, and had to win against the Wildcats for their shot at the final.
The Lady Pirates defeated the Wildcats 4-3 thanks to a seventh-inning comeback made possible by a hit from Ivey Sims.
Fueled by that victory, the Lady Pirates came back and shut down the Lady Bulldogs 6-0.
In the final game, however, the Lady Bulldogs took an early lead and won the game 12-2.
Winfield came out of the tournament as the 3A Area 12 runners-up, and advanced to regionals this week.
 
Hamilton
The Hamilton Lady Aggies also advanced to the regional tournament as the 4A Area 11 runners-up.
Hamilton lost in the first round to the Haleyville Lady Lions, but got themselves out of the loser’s bracket  by avenging themselves against the Lions 12-4 after the Lions lost to the Curry Yellow Jackets.
The Lady Aggies played the Lady Yellow Jackets in the final game, but lost 7-1.
Despite the loss, they still advanced to the regional tournament this week as runners-up.
The regional tournament began yesterday, May 9, which is just after the press deadline for this week’s paper (Monday, May 8). The regional tournament will be covered in a later edition of the Journal Record.