The Booneville Lady Bearcats won the Class 3A Region 1 tournament championship in Greenland yesterday with a wild 13-11 win over Lincoln.
That was in total contrast to what was expected between the two hurlers who led their teams to conference titles.
Lincoln jumped in front on an RBI triple in the top of the first but the Lady Bearcats erupted for seven runs over the next two innings.
Layla Byrum walked and Leigh Swint had a well-placed pop fly that fell for a hit in front of a Lexi Franklin triple (shown) that made it 2-1. Courtesy runner Lyddia Franklin would score on a passed ball and it was 3-1 after an inning.
Lexi Franklin had a huge day at the plate with three triples and five RBI.
In the second Karmen Kent drew a walk and Roni Tillery slapped a double to right. After Byrum was hit by a pitch to fill the bases, Swint drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt.
Lexi Franklin followed with a second triple to make it 6-1 and Brooke Turner chased her home with a hit.
Lincoln needed just one inning to draw even. There were three extra base hits, a walk, a couple of errors and, eventually, a passed ball that tied it before one of Lexi Franklin’s 12 strikeouts finally ended the inning.
After the Lady Bearcats were retired in order in the bottom of the third Lincoln went back in front when two walks scored on a sacrifice turned error and it was 9-7.
In the bottom of the inning Swint put another soft pop in a safe place with one down in the bottom of the fourth and Franklin tripled for the third time in the game to cut it to 9-8.
There were two down with Franklin still at third when Joleigh Tate came to the plate then 10-9 in favor of the Lady Bearcats when she went opposite field for her second home run of the tournament.
Lexi Franklin pitched around two Lady Wolf hits in the bottom of the fifth and the Lady Bearcats had one more huge hit in them.
After Caroline Smithson drew a walk, she was in motion when Kent's ball was smothered with a dive at second for a single. A sacrifice by Tillery moved both into scoring position to bring up Swint.
Her third hit of the day would be a shot to left that kicked away from the fielder and Swint just kept running, eventually completing an inside-the-park home run, the second for the Lady Bearcats in the tournament.
A single and a wild pitch gave Lincoln a chance in the top of the sixth and they took advantage of it with a run-scoring single to make it 13-10.
The Lady Bearcat were retired in order in the bottom of the inning and Lexi Franklin was greeted with a home run to start the Lincoln seventh and it was 13-11.
A walk brought the tying run up and after a strikeout for the first out, Lincoln’s 12th hit of the day got the tying run aboard.
Lexi Franklin (22-1) struck out the next two to end it.
The Lady Bearcats will open Class 3A state tournament play against Rivercrest, the four seed from Region 2 at 3 p.m. Thursday.
