By Staff
The Southern Express captured its third tournament championship by winning the 18-and-under Legends Tournament in Huntsville during the June 21-22 weekend with a come-from-the-lower-bracket performance.
The Express has already claimed championships in the T-Town Showdown and Storm Watch II tournaments. They finished in second place in the Germantown Invitational.
The Germantown tournament fields one of the strongest tournaments in the Southeast. While there, the Express came away with victories over teams from St. Louis, Baton Rouge, Nashville and Memphis before losing the championship game in extra innings to the Patriots of Louisiana.
Team members include, Bree Lee, LaBeth Aycock, Jessica Lyle, Alison Lyle, YeVonne Patterson, Holly Hampton, Regan Sandlin, Holly Kilgore, Sarah Whitlow, Meagan Gillott, Anna Byrd and Rachel Davidson.
The S.E. got off to a good start by beating the Breeze from Muscle Shoals. Jessica Lyle got the big hits with a triple and double. Collecting singles for the Express were Rachel Davidson, Regan Sandlin, A.lison Lyle, Sarah Whitlow, Yevonne Patterson and Holly Kilgore.
LaBeth Aycock picked up the win in the pitcher's circle.
The Express hit a snag in their second outing of the tournament, dropping a shutout to the Illusions of Memphis, Tenn.
A. Lyle connected for the only Express hit, while J. Lyle took the loss on the mound.
In the third game of pool play, the Express beat the Southern Rage of Decatur in a close game. Leading the team in hitting were R. Sandlin, S. Whitlow and H. Kilgore with two singles each. L. Aycock, J. Lyle and Y. Patterson had base hits. Bree Lee got the win with J. Lyle picking up the save with three strikeouts in the seventh inning.
In the first game of the single-elimination portion of the tournament, the Express came away with a 9-0 victory. S. Whitlow had the big hit with a homerun. L. Aycock had three singles, J. Lyle, R. Sandlin, and A. Lyle had two singles each. L. Aycock got the win.
The Express won a hard fought match against a good team from Birmingham. S. Whitlow led the Express at the plate, hitting two singles while R. Davidson, L. Aycock, J. Lyle and H. Kilgore had one each. B. Lee got the win and J. Lyle got the save.
In the championship game, the Express got revenge for their only loss with a 3-2 victory. The game was decided in the bottom of the seventh inning.
With the game tied 2-2 , H. Kilgore came up with a clutch single to put the winning run on first base. Facing two outs, L. Aycock moved Kilgore to second with single and J. Lyle came up big with an RBI single to plate the winning run.
R. Sandlin had the big hit with a triple. Leading the hitting for Express was J. Lyle with a double and two singles. L. Aycock had two singles; R. Davidson, A. Lyle, S. Whitlow and H. Kilgore had one base hit each.
J. Lyle got the win giving up only three hits and one walk in seven full innings.