win third state title

By

staff reports

BROOKHAVEN &045; If winning state titles ever becomes old hat, you’d better find a new line of work.

Or sport, in this matter. You won’t catch the Centreville Lady Tigers ho-humming a third straight MPSA Class AA state championship Saturday afternoon. The Lady Tigers got solid pitching and defense along with timely hitting to put away Riverfield 5-1 in the winners’ bracket final and Leake Academy 4-1 in the championship game.

The Lady Tigers, undefeated through the South State and state tournaments, will start play at the MPSA Overall tournament Wednesday at Mississippi College.

&uot;We’re looking forward to overall, but right now we’re kind of savoring this state championship,&uot; CA head coach Kenny Jackson said. &uot;Each has its own flair, and each one is special. It’s hard to really say. They’re all special in their own way. My assistant coaches did a wonderful job, too. It really helped me having them. To win state, it takes overall support.&uot;

The Lady Tigers didn’t tear it up at the plate, but the pitching from Kendall Madsen and the defense behind her combined to allow just four hits in the two games. The defense also had a couple of key double plays, including a big one late in the game against Leake.

Madsen went the distance in both games, striking out five against Leake and seven against Riverfield.

&uot;She threw a good ball game, and we played some really good defense behind her,&uot; Jackson said. &uot;They had a couple times we had to have double plays to get out of the inning, and they all played good defense to get us out of three or four jams. We bunted the ball over, moved the runners over and scored runs. It’s what I call Billy Ball for (former Yankees manager) Billy Martin. We played two good teams today.&uot;

The Lady Tigers jumped to an early lead in the first inning against Leake to give Madsen some room to work. Ash Brashier singled, Shelly Vines reached on an error and Madsen singled, and all three came around to score for a 3-0 lead.

Leake tacked on a run in the second, but the game was scoreless until the sixth when Jenae Jackson singled and scored when Courtney Travis reached on an error for the 4-1 lead.

The Lady Rebels had runners at first and second in the third, but Madsen got two batters to fly out to end the inning.

In the fifth the Lady Rebels the first two batters reached base before Madsen got the first out on a strikeout. The next batter lined out to Brashier at second, who flipped to Jackson at first to turn the double play.

Against Riverfield, the Lady Tigers scored first there as well with two runs in the third inning and another in the fourth for a quick 3-0 lead. In the third Vines reached on an error and scored on a Madsen double, but the throw to third went wild and Madsen came around to score.

In the third Haley Bowser reached on an error to score Kelly Simpson. In the fifth the Lady Tigers got two more when Jenae Jackson doubled home Brashier and Misty Stelly.