The Forrest Lady Rockets defended their home turf Thursday night with a 6-1 opening round District 9-A Tournament win over a tough MTCS Lady Cougars squad at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill.

"We waited a while there before we opened things up, but I am pleased with the defensive effort," said Forrest coach Becky Cheatham. "I just want us to be more selective at the plate and stop dinging the ball around, hit the center of the ball and smack it through."

Pitcher's duel

It was a pitcher's duel most of the way with Forrest's Sara Jordan coming up big in the circle, tossing a three-hit complete beauty, including eight strikeouts and one base on balls.

The only blemish on Jordan's tally sheet was a fourth-inning leadoff homerun by MTCS' standout catcher Abby Sweeney.

"We knew she was capable of that, but we took our chance," said Cheatham. "But, one person shouldn't beat you."

Claire Patton went the distance in the circle for MTCS, giving up six hits in six innings of work, but five errors were costly to the Lady Cougars' cause.

Jordan worked her way out of a first-inning, second and third one-out jam with the second out coming on a nasty change-up to Mallory Bowman before the inning ended on a bouncer back to the circle.

First run

Forrest scored one unearned run in the bottom of the first as Lainey Mays and Kelsey Darnell reached on back-to-back MTCS errors to begin the inning.

MTCS got a nice ricochet on ground ball near third for a tag out on Mays before Jordan walked to load the bases.

Liz Daughrity hit a bouncer to the right side, easily scoring Darnell for the tying RBI before a grounder to short ended the rally.

There was no base runners for either side in the second inning and Jordan set down MTCS 1-2-3 in the third, including two strikeouts of Lady Cougars looking at third strikes.

Mays led off the third with a double to left field and Darnell followed with a walk.

Mays scores

After a pop-to short, a wild pitch sent Lady Rockets' runners to second and third before a pick-off attempt toss on Mays at third went awry, allowing the Forrest eighth-grader to race home, making it two-nothing.

Sweeney belted her shot to left in the fourth and the home team failed to capitalize on a Jessica Harmon leadoff single in the bottom of the frame.

Jordan began the fifth, kayoing the first two MTCS batters and getting the third notch on a grounder to Daughrity at first base.

Darnell drew a walk to leadoff the home half of the fifth inning before Warrick ripped a guided missile to center that Shelby Beckham snagged on a great play.

An error put runners on second and third, and after a pop-up to short, Savannah Brothers lined an RBI base hit to left field and the ball was missed, allowing two runs to score as Brothers stood on second with Forrest leading 4-1.

Final runs

Harmon walked before eighth-grader Samantha King drilled an RBI single to right field and Kiyoko Puca followed with slap bouncer base hit in front of the plate that scored Harmon, making it 6-1.

MTCS managed two base runners in the sixth, but did score and Jordan finished the ballgame with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, sending the Lady Rockets to round two versus Cascade, who beat Eagleville 8-1.

"That was a very good job by Sara and a good job defensively by everyone and how about that eighth-grader, who came up with a hit there in the clutch after she struggled the two previous times, so I am proud of all of them," said Cheatham.

Mays (1-4, RS), Warrick (1-4, 2B), Brothers (1-4, RBI), Harmon (1-2, BB, RS), King (1-3, RBI), and Puca (1-3, RBI) each had one of the half dozen hits off Patton, while Darnell walked twice and scored a pair of runs.

The second round was rained on Saturday and Monday, pushing the tournament to Tuesday at Huntland with the Forrest/Cascade game slated for a 7:00 p.m. start on Saturday at Huntland, following Moore County versus the host Huntland Lady Hornets squad at 5:30 p.m.