Sydney Burcham homered and was one of four different Russellville players with multiple hits on Thursday, helping the Lady Golden Tigers finish area play in strong fashion with an 8-1 win at home over Brooks.
Russellville (18-18 overall) swept both Brooks and East Limestone this season and finished second behind Lawrence County in Class 5A, Area 16 with a 4-2 record. The Lady Golden Tigers will be the No. 2 seed and will face third-seeded East Limestone in the first round of next month’s area tournament, which will be held at Lawrence County High.
The area champion and runner-up will both advance to the North Regional Tournament in Huntsville on May 11-13.
Emma Whitfield picked up the win on Thursday, holding Brooks to just four hits in a complete game. Whitfield did not walk a batter and needed just 62 pitches to finish seven innings, getting ten groundball outs and eight flyball outs. She struck out one.
Russellville jumped on top early with two runs in the bottom of the first. Kalli Beth Daniel led off with a single to left, stole second and eventually scored on Makayla O’Neal’s two-out hit. O’Neal moved up on an error and came home on Burcham’s single to right to make it 2-0.
The Lady Golden Tigers added three more runs in the bottom of the second. Autumn Logan sparked the rally with a single, and Whitfield reached on a fielder’s choice. Both runners scored on Daniel’s triple to center, and then Daniel came home on a groundout by Taylor to make it 5-0.
Brooks scored its only run in the top of the third, but Russellville came back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Taylor bunted for a hit, stole second, stole third and then scored on a sac fly by O’Neal. Burcham followed with a solo shot to right, her first home run of the season, to make it 7-1.
The Lady Golden Tigers tacked on one more run in the fifth when Madison Lamon scored on Taylor’s sacrifice fly.
Daniel finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs and a stolen base. Burcham was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and O’Neal also went 2-for-3. Logan was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Taylor went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs, and Whitfield, Madison Murray, Kayla Cochran and Alivia Clemmons also had one hit apiece.
