If the Marshall County Tigerettes (21-8) want to repeat as District 12-AA tournament champions, they will have to take the path of greatest resistance after losing 7-5 to the third seeded East Hickman Lady Eagles at home on Friday night in the second round.

Although MCHS had won the last six meetings against East Hickman, the Lady Eagles knocked Marshall County on their heels at the start of Friday's contest and jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Good effort

The Tigerettes fought back and sliced the deficit to 6-5 at the end of the fifth inning, but East Hickman held MCHS scoreless over the final two frames while tacking on an insurance run in the top of the seventh to pull out the hard fought victory.

Due to Friday's loss, Marshall County must now win three more games in order to qualify for the District championship game and advance to the Region 6-AA tournament.

"The first inning killed us. It gave them momentum that we could never get back," said MCHS coach Holly Cook. "We've been fighters all year though. We're going to have to do it the hard way now, but we've got the fight and determination to do it."

Bolstered by their first inning offensive flurry, the Lady Eagles finished with nine hits and four walks against Tigerette starting pitcher Grace Medley, who suffered the loss. Chelsey Buchanan tallied three hits to lead East Hickman at the plate, while starting hurler Amber Galyon, Maddi Clark, Haley Umstead, Dacy Thomasson, Hailey Robb, and Jannah Voyles all had one hit.

Hits limited

Galyon also went the distance in the circle to pick up the victory and limited the Tigerettes to six hits and three walks in the contest to go along with four strikeouts.

McKenzie Anderson went 2-for-3 with a RBI and a run scored to lead Marshall County offensively, while Katie Crabtree (2 RBI), Austyn Whaley, Madison Thomason, and Ashton Watkins notched one hit apiece.

The Tigerettes dug themselves a big hole at the start of the game, as East Hickman tallied five runs in the top of the first inning on four hits, two walks, and two errors to seize a 5-0 lead.

Marshall County left two runners on base in the bottom of the first, but got back into the contest in the second inning by pushing across three unearned runs with the help of three Lady Eagle errors, a Madison Hargrove walk, and a RBI single by Anderson to narrow the gap to 5-3.

East Hickman stretched their lead to 6-3 in the top of fifth when Clark raced home on a sacrifice fly by Galyon after leading off the inning with a bunt single and advancing to third on a Buchanan single.

Pressure's on

The Tigerettes continued to put pressure on the Lady Eagles and tallied two runs in the bottom half of the fifth to whittle the deficit to 6-5. Following a leadoff single by Watkins, Whaley laced a double into the left centerfield gap to put runners on second and third with no outs, before Crabtree smacked a two-run single into right field.

East Hickman gave Galyon a little more wiggle room in the top of the seventh when they plated a run on a RBI single by Thomasson to open up a 7-5 advantage.

Galyon then worked around a hit batsman in the bottom of the seventh to sew up the victory for the Lady Eagles.